Quartzsite man arrested after Blythe burglary on Highway 95

A burglary call on U.S. Highway 95 in Blythe turned into a cross-border arrest that linked Quartzsite, Blythe and tribal police within hours. Deputies with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office responded at 6:27 p.m. April 7 to a reported residential burglary in the 18000 block of the highway and later identified the suspect as Marcus Fultz, 45, of Quartzsite, Arizona.

Investigators said witnesses gave deputies a description after the suspect fled the area. That description was broadcast to nearby agencies, including the Colorado River Indian Tribe Police Department, which helped locate Fultz. Deputies said he was found in possession of property taken in the burglary, and he was booked into the Blythe Jail on suspicion of residential burglary and possession of stolen property.

The case underscores how quickly a property crime on the west end of the Colorado River corridor can draw in multiple agencies. The Colorado River Sheriff’s Station covers the unincorporated area from Hayfield Road on the west to the Arizona state line on the east, while Colorado River Indian Tribes police say their jurisdiction extends into California. In a stretch where residents, workers and travelers routinely move between Blythe, Quartzsite and Parker, law enforcement often has to act across those boundaries as soon as a suspect leaves one side of the river for the other.

Blythe, a small city of 17,320 people as of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 estimate, can feel the impact of a single burglary quickly. A case that starts in one home along Highway 95 can ripple through neighborhoods and businesses on both sides of the state line, especially when a suspect is linked to Quartzsite, a town many La Paz County residents know from daily travel, commerce and winter traffic.

The sheriff’s office said the investigation remained active. Anyone with information was directed to Deputy Moreno at the Colorado River Sheriff’s Station, 260 N. Spring Street in Blythe, at 760-921-7900. The arrest showed how a fast witness description, interagency communication and tribal-county coordination can turn a local burglary into a swift regional law-enforcement response.