On March 2, 2025, the Logan County Sheriff's Office responded to a call at a residence on River Mountain Road located between the New Blaine and Delaware communities after a family member found William Harris, 84, deceased in his home after checking on him. When we arrived, we found that Harris was deceased from an apparent crossbow bolt wound and appeared to have been deceased for about a week. We called the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division to investigate the case and we assisted throughout the investigation. The Arkansas State Police special agents processed the crime scene and took the lead on the case. We discovered that a number of firearms and financial documents were stolen from the house and that a person attempted to cash a check on Harris's account about a week earlier at a local bank drive-thru but left after bank employees questioned him. We also discovered that the suspect was driving a motorhome-type recreational vehicle (RV) but used the victim's vehicle when he attempted to cash the check.

At the onset of the case, we did not have an obvious suspect so we spent many days and nights following up on all of the leads we received. After following up on a Georgia passport that the suspect used in the attempt to cash the check, an Arkansas State Police special agent discovered that the passport belonged to a man who was recently murdered in Oglethorpe County, Georgia. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was investigating that case along with the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office and they informed the Arkansas State Police special agent that they just got off the phone with the Denton Police Department in Texas who arrested Michael Dusch on outstanding warrants from North Carolina and Dusch had documents in his RV belonging to the victim in Georgia and the Denton Police called them to inquire about the documents. Dusch also had documents belonging to William Harris.

 

The Denton Police Department had recently purchased license plate readers for some patrol cars and on the day before they found the RV, they mounted one on a patrol vehicle. The next day on March 6th, that Denton patrol officer was driving around a parking lot and the license plate reader automatically scanned the plate of an RV from North Carolina and the license plate reader device informed the officer that the RV was stolen out of North Carolina. The officer knocked on the door of the recreational vehicle and discovered that the occupant, Michael Dusch, had multiple warrants out of North Carolina for child exploitation and for the theft of the RV. This officer then took the initiative and conducted an inventory search of the RV and discovered documents from several individuals including the Georgia and Arkansas murder victims but at the time, the patrol officer did not know about the murders. The Denton Police then called Oglethorpe County to inquire about the documents and found out that the documents belong to a man who was murdered in that county.

The Denton Police Department also contacted the Moore County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina and found that while the Sheriff's Office was investigating Michael Dusch for child exploitation, Michael left their state by stealing an RV.

 

A few days later after we were informed about Michael Dusch's arrest in Denton, two special agents from the Arkansas State Police and Lt. Mark Walker and I (Sheriff Jason Massey) from the Logan County Sheriff's Office and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tyler Barham traveled to Denton, Texas, and met with agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and investigators from the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office at the Denton Police Department along with Denton's Criminal Investigation Division and Crime Scene Technician Team. They conducted a detailed and systematic forensic evaluation of the RV and seized multiple items of evidence including a crossbow found in the RV. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent and an Arkansas State Police agent also interviewed the suspect.

 

Michael Dusch was extradited to the State of Georgia to face murder charges there. He is expected to face murder charges in Arkansas as well and our Prosecuting Attorney's Office is working with the Prosecuting Attorney's Office in Georgia about that process.

 

There was great teamwork between agencies in four different states in bringing Michael Dusch to justice. We thank the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division for their hard work as the lead agency on this case and the cooperation between their agency, the Sheriff's Office, and the Prosecuting Attorney's Office in following all of the numerous leads at the onset of this case. We also have a very big thanks to the Denton Police Department. They found the RV, arrested Dusch, and took the initiative that put this case together. They are a very professional agency and they worked very well with all of us who went down there to process the RV. We also thank the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office.