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.

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About the Contributors

CJ Boxhill, Multimedia

CJ Boxhill is serving as Team Multimedia for the 2025-2026 school year. Boxhill has now been on staff for two years and served as Team Multimedia for the 2024-2025 school year as well. Boxhill won a Best of SNO award last year for his podcast Red Blue and A Lot To Do with co-host Ava Flores which was the first multimedia best of sno for trail. Boxhill was also a part of the team that won Distinguished SNO site last year. Boxhill has also won a superior award alongside his peers for their staff editorial at GSPA. Boxhill is a current member of the Spirit of Mcintosh Marching Band, he serves a leadership role as percussion leader in the band. He also served 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 is also involved in the Tech crew for Mcintosh Theater. Boxhill has been working at Carrabba’s Italian Grill for the past seven months and serves as a certified trainer there. When Boxhill is not working or at school he enjoys playing video games, hanging out with his friends, or learning new music. Boxhill 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. Boxhill is excited for the upcoming year and working with new faces.

Nyla Kërr, News Editor

News Editor, Kërr is spending her third year on the McIntosh Trail. Kërr has always been passionate about writing and has been honing her craft for the past seven years. In her first year on the Trail, she earned a Superior rating on two of her articles at the Georgia Scholastic Press Association. She was a member of the first Trail staff to win a School Newspapers Online (SNO) Distinguished Site award in the 2023-2024 school year. The Trail won its second SNO Distinguished Site award in the 2024-2025 school year. Kërr has also contributed to award-winning journalistic pieces such as the house editorial “The Possibility is Never Zero”, which won a Best of SNO and an All-Georgia at the 2025 Georgia Scholastic Press Association spring convention. Additionally, Kërr has been recognized for high honor roll and has received academic awards for outstanding achievement in biology, anatomy 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, CJE, advises two award-winning journalism programs at McIntosh: the online news site The Trail and the Legend yearbook. Woolf was the GSPA Adviser of the Year in 2022 and was named a JEA Rising Star in 2020. In addition to serving GSPA on the Teacher Advisory Council, she serves on the JEA Scholastic Journalism Week Committee. She earned her Certified Journalism Educator credential in April 2021 and was awarded Star Teacher at McIntosh High School in May 2021. 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 adjudicates yearbooks and online news sites for New Jersey, Florida, Nebraska and NorCal, among others, and presents at the National Scholastic Press Association’s fall conventions, for Georgia Scholastic Press Association and for Jostens, both at the state and national level. Woolf loves Coke Zero and helping student journalists and photographers hone their craft. She collects smushy pennies from her travels and polydactyl cats who need adopting.