Creve Coeur Cops Honored For Murder Warrant Arrest, Serial Forgery Suspects and More

The held the city's quarterly recognition ceremony late last month at the Creve Coeur Government Center, handing out meritorious certificates as well as the department's Officer of the Quarter Award.

Officer of the Quarter: 

Detective Nicole Bible was recognized for her work on a forgery case which she began investigating August 12, 2011. Chief Glenn Eidman said Detective Bible arrested the suspect March 10, 2012 and gained a full confession and a 33 count indictment in the case.

The following staff were also recognized with promotions:

• Phil Lane was promoted to Sergeant
• Jon Romas was promoted to Lieutenant and will attend the FBI Academy this summer.
• Bill Funkhouser was promoted to Captain

Check Out More Photos From The Ceremony On Facebook

Certificates Of Recognition (Narrative provided by Creve Coeur Police)

On Tuesday November 15, 2011 at 7:55 a.m. Creve Coeur Police Officers responded to a call of a burglary that had occurred at an office building in the 10100 block of Corporate Square Drive. The crime had been committed sometime the previous night. A report was taken and the investigation was assigned to Detective Donald Szydlowski.

After learning about the burglary report in roll call, Officer DeGhelder recalled running the license plate of an unoccupied, suspicious vehicle backed up to the loading dock of this same building. He passed this information on to Detective Szydlowski.

Detective Szydlowski investigated the vehicle trying to determine who had been driving it the night of the burglary. Eventually he developed a suspect; a recently fired employee of the business whose girlfriend owned the vehicle. Detective Szydlowski tracked down the suspect and interviewed him.

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On Wednesday December 7, 2011 at approximately 7:00 p.m. Mr. Adam Boyet witnessed a car break-in at . He called 911 and gave authorities a description of the car. After police stopped the car matching the description Boyet gave, he was brought to the scene and identified the suspect. For his efforts Mr. Adam Boyet was given a Certificate of Recognition.

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On Friday January 20, 2012 at approximately 7:00 p.m. Officer Jason Courson responded to  for a reported theft of an Apple iPhone. Officer Courson contacted the victim and took the information for the report. Officer Courson contacted the victim’s cellular service provider who gave him information on where the phone had been used after it was stolen. Officer Courson knew that at the time of the theft Whitfield School had an athletic event against another school located elsewhere in St. Louis County. These calls were made in the vicinity of the same school that Whitfield played against on the night of the theft. Eventually he was able to identify a suspect who was a player on the other school's sports team. Officer Courson interviewed the suspect, gained a confession and recovered the victim’s iPhone.

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Officer Richard Wigginton was credited with tracking a suspicous vehicle in the area of the AMC Theatre on January 23. The vehicle was registered to someone with mulitple felony drug warrants, but police say when Wiggington and others made the stop, he discovered a suspect with a first degree murder warrant out of St. Louis City. 

On Friday February 17, 2012, Police learned of protest being planned against a business located at CityPlace. After officers were on scene for three hours with no sign of protests, the department scaled back its response and selected Officer Thomas Excline to stay. Then 40 protesters arrived with Excline as the only officer on scene. He was recognized for maintaining order on the scene until backup arrived.

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On Tuesday March 6, 2012 Mrs. Magdelena Vazquez was working at 450 N. New Ballas Road when she witnessed a suspicious man walking through the office building. Mrs. Vazquez called the police department and they were able to stop the male suspect Mrs. Vazquez had described, as he was leaving the building. After investigating, it was determined he had just burglarized three offices in the building and would later confess to burglarizing several offices in the same building a few days before.

For her efforts Mrs. Magdalena Vazquez is awarded a Certificate of Recognition.

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