The National Park Service Investigative Services Branch is seeking help from the general public for tips to identify those responsible for vandalizing one of the country’s oldest remaining original stone churches.
Sometime during the night of August 20th to August 21st, 2025, a door of convento of Mission Concepción located in San Antonio Missions National Historical Park was smashed with large rocks in a forced entry causing considerable damage not only to the door but the surrounding structure. The suspects then stole moisture level monitoring devices used to protect the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
If you have any information regrading the identity of the guilty party, you are encouraged to reach out to the authorities. You can remain anonymous:
“You don’t have to tell us who you are, but please tell us what you know.“ -NPS
The National Park Service Investigative Services Branch:
U.S. Park Rangers of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park are seeking information from the public to help identify those responsible for recent damage and forced entry into the convento of Mission Concepción. Park officials report the incident occurred at Mission Concepción during the overnight hours of August 20th to August 21st, 2025.
Suspects gained entry to the Mission Concepción Convento area by throwing large boulders through the wood door causing considerable damage to the door and structure. The suspects stole monitoring devices used to determine moisture levels within the historic structure.
Information from the public is often very helpful to investigators. If you have information that could help identify those responsible for these acts of vandalism, the park asks you to call the ISB Tip Line at 888-653-0009, use the online Tip form at go.nps.gov/SubmitATip, or email nps_isb@nps.gov.
You don’t have to tell us who you are, but please tell us what you know.
-CALL: the ISB Tip Line 888-653-0009
-ONLINE: go.nps.gov/SubmitATip
-EMAIL: nps_isb@nps.gov
-EMERGENCY: dial 9-1-1
Mission Concepción @ San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
San Antonio Missions, a National Park Service site and the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Texas. Each mission in the park is a center of community and has been since the early 1700s. They changed life in this region, introducing new technologies while enforcing new cultural guidelines.
Enduring time and elements for more than 250 years, Mission Concepción stands as one of the country’s oldest remaining original stone churches. But mortar and stone are not all that remain of the vibrant mission community. Though the mission served as a religious center, missionaries provided much more than spiritual guidance. They instructed Indigenous inhabitants to function as a European community.
Spanish settlers made rapid, fundamental, and permanent change most dramatically among the Indigenous groups. This new society, neither wholly Indigenous nor wholly Spanish, has continually evolved to become the predominant culture of South Texas.
The Investigative Arm of the National Park Service
The special agents of the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch (ISB) are a specialized and highly trained team of criminal investigators. Together with program and victim support specialists as well as an intelligence analyst, the team works year-round and around the clock to investigate complex, sensitive, and long-term cases for crimes throughout the national park system. ISB personnel are stationed among America’s more than 420 national parks and report directly to NPS headquarters in Washington, D.C.
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