Breaking: Suspect arrested in band room instrument theft

CJ Boxhill and Nyla Kërr

Apr 25, 2025

Picture of officers returning the missing instruments.

A suspect has been arrested in relation to the McIntosh High school band room theft on March 26.

Andrew Laughlin was booked into the Fayette County jail on April 24. He is a McIntosh High School graduate of the class of 2024.

SRO Thomas Conover confirmed that the arrest has been made.

“Charges are currently pending,” Conover said.

On Wed., March 26, students noticed that their instruments were missing and later found out that they were stolen. A total of $26,300 worth of instruments were stolen from the band and orchestra rooms.

The suspect’s arrest came after their parent saw yesterday’s Facebook post from the Peachtree City Police Department about the break and turned him in.

Screenshot of arrested suspect’s booking found on the Fayette County sheriff’s office website.
(CJ Boxhill).

Band Director Barbara Baker commented on the return of the instruments.

“I’m ecstatic. I’m very happy they’re back. We’re now assessing damage, and the person who stole them will be responsible for paying for the repair of the damage, but I’m very happy that we got the instruments back,” Baker said.

Baker then commented on how she felt the situation was handled.

“It didn’t seem like the police department was a was aggressively investigating at the very beginning. So everything seemed confusing. We were doing a lot of things ourselves with our school officer, and, you know, myself and [orchestra director Rae Litowich] which I do feel like, once it was posted online, everything resolved itself very quickly. So I do feel like if it had been posted online sooner, maybe we would have had a resolution sooner. I’m very happy now that they were able to get the person to arrest a person who did it,” Baker said.

Donate to The Trail - The Student News Site of McIntosh High School

$565

$750

Contributed

Our Goal

Your donation supports the student journalists of McIntosh High School. Your contribution allows us to cover our annual website hosting costs, to help pay printing costs for "Back to Mac" magazine, and continuing education for staff, such as SNO trainings and MediaNow! editorial leadership training.

About the Contributors

CJ Boxhill, Multimedia

CJ Boxhill is a junior at McIntosh and is serving his first year on staff as a part of the Multimedia team. He plans to focus on helping people share their experiences and public speaking opportunities. Boxhill is a current member of the Spirit of McIntosh Marching Band, he serves a leadership role as percussion logistics in the band. He also serves as the Vice President of the Skills USA club. Boxhill has won two Rookie Of The Year awards and also two Student Choice awards. Boxhill made silver academic recognition these past two years. He is also a McIntosh ambassador. Boxhill has been working at Chick-Fil-A for the past six months and serves as a team member there. When Boxhill is not working or at school he enjoys playing video games or hanging out with his friends. He is very interested in politics and law. Boxhill is the last of his family to attend McIntosh High School, his sister Davian and Cousins Katrina and Chris have all attended McIntosh. One of his biggest goals in life is to be elected as a future President of the United States.

Nyla Kërr, News Editor

News Editor Nyla Kërr is spending her second year on the McIntosh Trail. Kërr has always been passionate about writing and has been honoring her craft for the past six years. She was a part of the first Trail staff to win a School Newspapers Online Distinguished Site award. Kërr has also received two academic awards for outstanding achievement in biology and English. She has also been awarded the President’s Award for Educational Excellence. When she is not buried deep in her classwork, Kërr enjoys spending time with her family, playing the guitar and doing calisthenics.

Shanon Woolf, Adviser

Shanon Woolf, Certified Journalism Educator, advises two award-winning journalism programs at McIntosh: the online news site The Trail and the Legend yearbook. Woolf is the Georgia Scholastic Press Association’s Adviser of the year for 2022. She earned her Certified Journalism Educator credential in April 2021 and was Awarded Star Teacher at McIntosh High School in May 2021. Woolf was named a Journalism Education Association (JEA) Rising Star in 2020. She was also the Georgia Scholastic Press Association’s First Year Adviser of the Year in 2019 and has been a member of the JEA’s Scholastic Journalism Week committee since 2019. Woolf judges online news and yearbooks for several other states, and has presented at many scholastic journalism conventions, including the National Scholastic Press Association, Georgia Scholastic Press Association and Jostens Adviser University. Woolf loves two things: Coke Zero and helping student journalists and photographers hone their craft. She collects smushy pennies from her travels and polydactyl cats who need adopting.