High-Speed Chase Ends With Crash Into Bartow Cemetery

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A northwest Bartow County cemetery suffered about $33,000 in damage when a suspect fleeing a police pursuit drove over nearly two dozen gravestones.

That’s according to an incident report released by the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office, which was called in to assist the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office in the pursuit of a 2001 Chevrolet Bravada at Hayes Cemetery on S.R. 140 in unincorporated Adairsville.

The deputy arrived onto the scene around 2:04 a.m. Sunday, May 24 to help in the search of two suspects, whom were both subsequently captured with the help of K-9s with the Adairsville Police Department.

According to the report, a female passenger in the car with the suspect told the man to stop, but he allegedly continued to flee.

Gordon County deputies said the suspect, Matthew Thomas Dotson, 32, of Calhoun, “told them that he was on parole and his license was not valid, and he did not want to go back to prison.” The Bartow sheriff’s deputy observed the vehicle, which had ”crashed into multiple headstones in the graveyard.”

Based upon the tire tracks and the SUV’s fining resting place, “it was evident that Matthew drove off the gravel road in the cemetery, and continued driving over several headstones,” the deputy wrote in his narrative.

A total of 22 gravestones -- some of which were marble, granite or other stone materials -- were either broken, cracked, displaced or damaged by the suspect’s alleged actions, the report states. Some of the gravestones date back to the early 1800s, the deputy observed.

Using information pulled from the International Southern Cemetery Gravestones Association, which notes the average cost of gravestone markers is about $1,500, the sheriff’s deputy estimated the value of the stones was around $33,000.

“This obviously does not take into account the age and relative sentimental values that cannot be replaced,” the deputy continues.

Dotson was transported to the Gordon County Jail where a hold was also placed on him for Bartow County.

Gordon jail records show Dotson has been charged with reckless driving, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, fleeing or attempting to elude police, driving while license is suspended/revoked, failure to maintain lane, failure to obey stop and yield signs and speeding 70 in a 35 mile-per-hour zone.

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