PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD) — A Portage man who is considered a person of interest in the disappearance of his wife was arrested for allegedly cutting his neighbor’s cable and air conditioning line, according to court documents.
A copy of the probable cause statement obtained by 24 Hour News 8 indicates a neighbor caught Christopher Lockhart in the act on camera.
Lockhart is expected to be formally charged Friday with malicious destruction of a building. He’s also accused of interfering with electronic communications, court records show.
Lockhart was arrested at his home Thursday, exactly seven weeks after his wife, 44-year-old Theresa Huyge Lockhart, was last seen.
She was reported missing two days later by her employer, Schoolcraft Community Schools. Her car was found that same weekend just a couple miles from her home at a park-and-ride off of Angling Road.
Police have called Christopher Lockhart a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance and said the case could become a homicide investigation. Three weeks after she vanished, investigators spent 29 hours searching the couple’s Portage home.
Christopher Lockhart told 24 Hour News 8 over the phone on June 3 that he was not involved the the disappearance of his wife.
He said she had struggled with mental health problems and he didn’t report her missing because he “assumed she was going to get herself some help.” He said she had gone off without telling him before.
Christopher Lockhart denied the assertion from police that he wasn’t cooperating in their investigation.
Christopher Lockhart has three previous convictions for peeping through windows and one conviction for making obscene phone calls. He was also charged in a domestic violence case involving his wife in November 2016 and pleaded guilty to simple assault.
Anyone with information about where Theresa Lockhart may be is asked to call Portage police at 269.329.4567 or Silent Observer at 269.343.2100.