Authorities find Powell suspect and stolen dolls hidden in crawl space

Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Juliet Fish volunteered to be the one to go down into the crawl space of a Powell trailer during a recent search.

“Well,” Fish soon called up. “I found the dolls.”

The Park County Sheriff’s Office and DCI combed over the trailer on Feb. 17; they were looking for more than $13,200 worth of property — including three dozen collectible porcelain dolls — that had been stolen from some Powell storage units a month or two earlier.

When investigators initially arrived at Chad M. Hill’s trailer in Scott’s Granite Park, Hill was nowhere to be found. However, his wife later admitted he was hiding beneath the residence, communicating with her by walkie talkie, Park County Sheriff’s Deputy Andy MaGill recounted in court court documents.

Hill was ordered to come out of the crawl space and agent Fish went in.

“At this time,” MaGill wrote in an affidavit, “Agent Fish handed me doll after doll, most of them in boxes and some of them not.”

Around 30 porcelain dolls were eventually brought out of the crawl space, logged into evidence and seized by the Sheriff’s Office, MaGill wrote.

The investigators also seized power tools, two heaters, a sewing machine, a weed trimmer, rototiller and leaf blower, a tent, a box of remote control cars and other items suspected to have been stolen from Metzler Storage in late December or early January.

Hill was arrested during the Feb. 17 search and later charged with a felony count of buying, receiving or disposing of property that he knew, believed or had “reasonable cause to believe was obtained in violation of the law.”

As of Wednesday, Hill remained in the Park County Detention Center, with bail set at $25,000 cash.

MaGill alleges in his affidavit that Hill admitted to knowing the items were probably stolen and admitted he planned to eventually make some money off of the stuff. However, the affidavit says Hill denied having actually stolen the items from Metzler Storage.

Hill said he couldn’t remember where he’d gotten some of the items, other times he said he didn’t want to give up the seller’s name because he wasn’t a snitch, MaGill wrote. Other times, the deputy said Hill would only give out nicknames — saying, for example, that some items came from a person called, “Slow Step.”

“Several more times, he was asked if he had any names of other people involved in the purchasing or theft of stolen items, and he would repeatedly make up an impractical or unbelievable story and begin to place the blame on others and their dishonesty,” MaGill wrote in the affidavit.

Law enforcement began probing the case on Jan. 10, when around a dozen Metzler Storage units were found to have been broken into. The affidavit says the culprit or culprits apparently cut off the locks and made off with a mix of about 60 items — ranging from 36 Ashton-Drake dolls (elaborate porcelain collectibles known for their realism, valued at $4,350) to a pair of sounding reels (used to measure distances in water through the use of sound waves, valued at $2,600) to two handguns. MaGill said the thefts appeared to have occurred sometime between Dec. 20 — when the units had last been checked — and Jan. 10.

It was roughly a month later that agent Fish received a tip from an associate of Hill’s; the affidavit says that associate told Fish that, while they were at Hill’s residence, Hill mentioned that he’d broken into several storage units and taken tools, guns, heaters and other items. The associate alleged Hill had actually showed off several guns — including some that appeared to match the description of weapons stolen from the storage units, MaGill wrote.

On the evening of Feb. 16 — the same day that MaGill learned of the tip to DCI — he and another deputy went to Hill’s home, as Hill had an active warrant for failing to appear in Circuit Court on a traffic citation.

Hill’s wife allowed the deputies inside and MaGill noticed one of the couple’s children playing with a doll that looked “very real.”

As he searched the house for Hill, MaGill said he took photos of several other dolls he found throughout the house and snapped a picture of an electric fireplace that appeared to match the description of one taken from Metzler Storage.

MaGill later showed the doll photos to the woman who’d reported losing hers and she said “that she had spent over 30 years collecting these dolls and was 100 percent positive that they were her dolls.”

The Sheriff’s Office received a search warrant for the property and executed it the following evening, ultimately finding Hill and around 30 dolls hidden in the crawl space beneath the trailer. Other items were found inside the home and outside in the yard.

A preliminary hearing for Hill, where a judge will determine if there’s enough evidence for the case to proceed toward a trial, is tentatively set for Friday morning.