According to a report by Daily Mail on Wednesday, 6 May, 2026, a series of puzzling household mysteries left an Arkansas couple questioning their own sanity, only to culminate in the shocking discovery of a complete stranger who had allegedly been living secretly in their basement for several days.
Dutch Hoggatt, a professor at Harding University, and his wife Sharon noticed food and clothing mysteriously disappearing from their home in Searcy, along with other subtle signs that something was amiss.
The bizarre situation unfolded over the course of a week in late April, leaving the couple increasingly unsettled before family members stepped in to help investigate.
On April 29, the couple’s suspicions were dramatically confirmed when they found 41-year-old Preston Scott Landis hiding in a storage closet in their basement.
According to authorities, Landis had reportedly created a makeshift bed deep inside the closet under the basement stairs and had been using the home without permission.
He was arrested by the White County Sheriff’s Office on charges of residential burglary and theft of property.
The ordeal started innocently enough. Dutch Hoggatt first grew suspicious when his work shoes, which he routinely left by the back door, vanished. “I came in looking for my work shoes. I always leave them by the back door.
My work shoes were gone,” Hoggatt told local media outlet KTHV. He asked his wife if she had moved or discarded them, but she had not.
Over the following days, more oddities emerged. Chairs in the house appeared to move from one location to another on their own. Food items, including donuts and apples, disappeared while the couple was out.
A deadbolt on one of the doors was found locked when neither Dutch nor Sharon had touched it. The couple began to feel as though they were “slowly going crazy,” as the unexplained events continued to mount.
“We noticed that chairs had been moved around in the house. We noticed that some of our food was missing,” Hoggatt recalled. Reports from KARK noted that the missing food items were particularly baffling, as they seemed to vanish during short periods when the homeowners were away from the residence.
Concerned for their parents’ well-being and hoping to put their minds at ease, the couple’s daughter Cherisse and her husband Mark Gregory offered to help search the house thoroughly.
The search took place while Dutch was away at church on April 29. Sharon Hoggatt led the effort, venturing into various storage areas in the basement.
According to family accounts shared with local news, Sharon was the first to enter a storage closet located underneath the basement stairs.
As she moved deeper into the space, her eyes widened in shock upon spotting the intruder.
Family members described the moment as surreal Landis had been quietly residing in the home, apparently seeking shelter from the elements.
“It seemed like he was just trying to get out of the elements, trying to survive,” one family member remarked in interviews.
Importantly, the Hoggatts emphasized that Landis did not take any high-value items, nor did he cause any physical harm to the family.
He had primarily helped himself to food and some clothing during his uninvited stay.
Landis was taken into custody without incident following the discovery. He remains in custody, with bond set according to White County records.
The case has drawn significant attention locally and nationally due to its unusual nature highlighting how a seemingly secure suburban home can become the setting for such an unexpected intrusion……See More
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