$367,000 in Copper Vanished From an I-69 Lighting Job. Police Say Scrap Yards Kept Seeing the Same Family.

Jason Fulks, Natalee Fairchild and Sherry Beasley in booking photos released by the Vanderburgh County Jail. (Vanderburgh County Jail via WFIE 14 News)

Somewhere between the I-69 and I-64 interchange and the scrap scales of the Tri-State, more than $367,000 worth of copper wire changed hands. That is the construction crews' own estimate of what was stolen from INDOT work-zone lighting projects, according to WFIE 14 News. Indiana State Police told WEHT the investigation dates back to December and covers construction projects in Vanderburgh, Posey and Warrick counties.

This week the case finally produced handcuffs. Natalee Fairchild, 35, was arrested Thursday night and appeared in court Friday charged with corrupt business influence, WFIE reported. She declined to comment when the station's reporter asked. Sherry Beasley was booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail late Friday morning on the same charge.

The name investigators keep coming back to is Jason Fulks. Records show he had already been arrested once this month, after a traffic stop, and WFIE reports there is a warrant out for his arrest in the copper case. Investigators say tools and copper turned up in his truck. State police say Fulks and several relatives are accused of stealing the wire.

The tip came from the people buying the metal

By authorities' own account, the first real lead came from the scrap trade. Yards across the Tri-State shared information that Fulks and members of his family were selling large amounts of copper. Investigators then built the case over several months with surveillance video, license plate readers and cell phone data, while theft reports piled up at the Evansville Police Department, the Warrick County Sheriff's Office and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office.

Corrupt business influence is no shoplifting count. It sits in the racketeering chapter of the Indiana Code and covers someone who runs, or takes part in, an enterprise "through a pattern of racketeering activity." It is a Level 5 felony, which carries one to six years in prison under the state sentencing statute.

The dollar figure shifts a little depending on who is telling it. WEHT put the loss above $360,000, and a Gray News version of the WFIE story headlined it at nearly $375,000. The $367,000 number is the crews' estimate as WFIE reported it.

Three sentences from INDOT

Here is everything the Indiana Department of Transportation gave WFIE on the thefts:

"INDOT is currently working on a district wide lighting contract. Copper was reported stolen from a work zone installing lighting as part of this contract at I-69 and I-64 interchange. That report was made to Indiana State Police who are investigating this issue. INDOT is currently evaluating the impacts of this theft on the project."

"Evaluating the impacts" leaves the important part blank. Hoosiers paying for that lighting contract still don't know whether the loss falls on the contractor, an insurer, or the public. INDOT hasn't said whether the theft delayed lighting at the interchange, what it will cost to buy and install replacement wire, or what was protecting those work zones while the copper was going missing.

None of that is a small question. Interstate lighting is a safety system, and wire stripped out of a highway job isn't a victimless side hustle. Someone has to pay to put it back. Credit goes to the scrap dealers who spoke up and the local agencies that kept filing reports. The state agency that owns the project should be just as forthcoming about the bill.

No one in this case has been convicted. The charges are allegations, and Fulks, Fairchild and Beasley are presumed innocent unless the state proves its case in court. The Hoosier Enquirer found no public statement from attorneys for any of them in coverage so far, and the full list of charges against Fulks has not been reported.

State police are still investigating. We'll be watching for the probable cause affidavits, Fulks's charges, and INDOT's answer on who pays.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.