Gheesling: Suspect's phone call broke burglary case

GAINESVILLE - North Hall High School Principal Joe Gheesling says the break in the case of the widely-publicized burglary at the school on Oct. 15 came Tuesday afternoon when he got a phone call.

"At approximately 3:10 p.m., I received a call from a young female apologizing for stealing our camera equipment from the field house," Gheesling said in a report to Hall County Schools Supt. Will Schofield. "I kept her on the phone as long as possible and had (someone else in the office) attempt to trace the call as well as notifying the sheriff's department."

Gheesling said that after about 15 minutes of conversation, "I was able to convince the girl that this whole situation would go better for her if she returned our camera equipment. She said that she and her boyfriend had pawned one of the cameras and a digital recorder, but she could bring the other two cameras and related equipment by the school at about 4:00 p.m."

Gheesling said two deputies and an investigator arrived at about 3:40 and at 3:50, a young man, a girl and an older man showed up at his office and said they wanted to talk to him.

"The older male was the girl's father. Apparently, he saw the video on WSB news today and immediately recognized his daughter and her boyfriend as the culprits. He told her to call me and arrange the return of the stolen items."

Gheesling said the pair told him they were "riding around that night in her father's car, and as they passed (the school), they decided to break into the field house to see if they could steal something they could pawn. They say they did not have a key, but that the weight room door was unlocked. Also, the door to the room where the video equip was located was also unlocked."

He said both also insisted they had never been on the North Hall High School campus before.

"We could not have solved this case without the help of our local media, the Gainesville Times and Access North Georgia, who first published the photos of the suspects, and WSB-TV and Fox News in Atlanta, who picked up the story and ran news features on November 2, 2009," Gheesling added.

The two suspects are: 17-year-old Erin Kelsey Pruett and 18-year-old Christopher Latlippe, both of Dawsonville.