Man found in crawl space of home in Phelps County

A man in Phelps County has been charged with first degree burglary and invasion of privacy after being found in the crawl space of a home that wasn’t his.

On June 12 at the 200 block of Pine Street in Rolla, a woman and her boyfriend reported to police officers that their home had been burglarized. Later that day, the woman saw someone’s arm through the floor vent of her bathroom.

The woman and her boyfriend found Philip Rowland underneath their house. When they tried to get Rowland out, he tried to stab the boyfriend with a screwdriver. Rowland escaped the crawl space on foot.

According to the woman, Rowland was wearing her underwear. Multiple items were found under the house, including latex gloves full of bodily fluids, children’s and women’s underwear, lubrication and sex aides. There was also a charged cell phone found that had videos that were recorded from an air vent of the house of a woman’s genitalia.