Cell phone pic helps crack burglary case

KELSO, Wash. - Deputies cracked a burglary case here with a little luck and the help of the burglar, who took pictures of his girlfriend with a stolen cell phone that ended up in the hands of investigators.

According to the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office, it all started when the man broke into the home of Michelle and Christopher Howell on Nov. 21. The criminal took thousands of dollars of tools, jewelry, coins and hunting and fishing gear - along with her cell phone.

Later, someone called Michelle Howell's mother saying they had found her cell phone in a Kelso laundry. A deputy got the phone and found pictures stored on it, including a picture the Howells did not take. That picture showed the mother of their 10-year-old daughter's friend: Cindy McAllister.

The sheriff's office said McAllister eventually admitted her boyfriend took her picture with the phone and linked him to the burglary, saying some of the property was still in a motor home she shared with him parked outside his mother's home on Maxwell Lane in Kelso.

Inside, deputies recovered several hundred dollars worth of the Howell's stolen property. That, however, was only a small part of the total amount of stuff that had been stolen, the sheriff's office said.

Inside his mother's house, deputies found Robin "Rocky" G. Millican, 44, hiding in his mother's bedroom and arrested him, the sheriff's office said. He was booked on investigation of residential burglary and was given a $50,000 bail. 

Meanwhile, McAllister was released.

Anyone with information on the case was asked to call Crime Stoppers at (360) 577-1206.