St. Louis County Police are searching for a skateboarder who split a wooden cross outside a South County church with an axe, after first trying to saw the structure down. The vandalism happened during the early morning hours Wednesday on the front lawn of Gethsemane Lutheran Church, in the 700 block of Lemay Ferry Road in Lemay, Missouri.
Police told KMOV the suspect was riding a skateboard and wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with camouflage shorts. The axe used to split the cross was left behind in the area and bears pencil writing, though its markings have not been made public. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Vitale by phone at 314-615-4155 or by email at [email protected].
The attack on the cross unfolded in stages, according to St. Louis Call Newspapers. The suspect reportedly tried sawing the cross down first, then pushed the structure onto the church lawn before returning hours later with the axe to finish splitting it. The outlet also reports that the suspect left a handwritten note in pencil at the scene alongside the axe, though police have not disclosed what the note says.
A Century-Old Lemay Congregation Faces the Damage
Gethsemane Lutheran Church has stood in the Lemay community since it was officially organized on December 31, 1905, giving the congregation a 120-year history in South St. Louis County, according to the LCMS Locator. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod's 2025 congregation statistics list Gethsemane with 172 baptized members and an average weekly worship attendance of 81 congregants.
If a suspect is identified and charged, Missouri prosecutes damage to houses of worship under its institutional vandalism statute, RSMo Section 574.085. Knowingly damaging or defacing a church is a Class A misdemeanor that can rise to a Class E felony once property damage reaches or exceeds $750, and to a Class D felony above $5,000. Separately, Missouri's House of Worship Act under RSMo Section 574.035 gives church leaders the right to pursue civil compensatory and punitive damages, plus injunctive relief, against anyone who intentionally damages a place of worship.
Data Shows a Wider Pattern of Bias Crimes at Houses of Worship
The case lands amid broader concern about bias-motivated crimes at religious institutions. FBI figures published in 2025 show religiously motivated bias accounted for 2,942 hate crime offenses nationwide in 2024, according to the St. Louis Review, more than a quarter of all reported hate crimes that year. FBI data cited by KBIA shows Missouri agencies logged 65 hate crime incidents statewide in 2023, and lawmakers introduced legislation in December 2025 to create a state grant program helping houses of worship pay for security upgrades like cameras and reinforced doors.
Wednesday's vandalism also revives memories of an earlier case just down the same corridor. St. Louis County Police investigated Islamophobic graffiti found in the 600 block of Lemay Ferry Road in May 2026, when Hoodline reported hateful writing scrawled on a brick wall just blocks from Gethsemane Lutheran Church.
What Happens Next
It remains unclear whether investigators will pursue the Lemay case as a hate crime or as a more conventional act of institutional vandalism, and the contents of the handwritten note found at the scene have not been made public. St. Louis County Police say the search for the skateboarder continues.
