Suspect arrested in months-long forgery, vehicle theft case

YALOBUSHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A case that began in October in Yalobusha County is cracked two months later in Madison County thanks to an alleged thief swiping the wrong license plate.

Elisha Lindsey of Ridgeland is in the Yalobusha County jail, charged with Uttering Forgery.

The investigation began in October, when Lindsey and another man, Tre Vaughn Railey of Jackson, allegedly used a fake $39,000 cashier’s check to buy a Jeep SRT from a Water Valley man.

The man soon realized the check was worthless and contacted the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Office. He had been suspicious of the pair and had taken a picture of them and the car they were driving at the time.

The pictures were put on the Sheriff’s social media pages and caught the attention of a woman in Carroll County who identified the men as the same ones who had used a bogus check to buy her Honda Accord.

From there the case went cold, until early this month when Ridgeland Police were called about a Jeep that had been repossessed.

The Repo Agent had been sent a vehicle tag number to pick up.

When he got the Jeep back to his lot, he realized the VIN and tag didn’t match.

The tag had been switched.

He called Ridgeland PD, who ran the VIN, and found it was connected to the Water Valley case.

Yalobusha investigators sent them pictures of the suspects.

Ridgeland PD set up a sting to catch the driver. They called him to let him know his Jeep was at the impound yard and that there had been a mix-up.

Lindsey and Railey came to pick up the Jeep and were arrested.

Lindsey has been taken to Yalobusha County.

Tre Vaughn Railey was extradited to Tuscaloosa County, Alabama to face possession of a forged instrument charges.

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