A St. Peters man was charged Wednesday with making methamphetamine.

St. Charles County Sheriff’s investigators found Shawn Stearman, 45, of the 1500 block of Ticonderoga Court, bought pseudoephedrine 17 times in 17 months, and his nephew, Jacob Hamilton, bought the same meth ingredient 12 times in nine months.

Stearman and his mother gave consent to search his room, his car and her home, where Stearman rented a room, according to a St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department report. Officers found a cold pack taken apart, lithium batteries and five grams of pseudoephedrine hidden under the hood of Stearman’s vehicle. All are used to make meth.

Hamilton told investigators that most of Stearman’s lab and meth were hidden in a wooded area, buried in a five-gallon bucket. They found the bucket as described under a sapling with the initials “SS” an an arrow pointing to where the bucket was buried, the report said.