Lancaster man wanted on felony charges eludes authorities during manhunt in Cambridge
Rick Stillion
The Daily Jeffersonian
Authorities continue to search for a Lancaster man wanted on a felony warrant following an unsuccessful manhunt in Cambridge Monday night when he fled on foot from a traffic stop on Interstate 70.
The Guernsey County Sheriff's Office, Cambridge Police Department and State Highway Patrol participated in the nearly two-hour manhunt beginning just after 8:30 p.m.
A highway patrol helicopter as well as officers and K-9 units from the sheriff's office and police department participated in the manhunt that started in the Dozer Road area before moving into the southwest corner of the city.
The 23-year-old suspect is wanted on a warrant issued by the Guernsey County Common Pleas Court on Nov. 24, after he failed to appear a pretrial hearing two days earlier.
The man faces single counts of tampering with drugs, a third-degree felony; aggravated possession of drugs, a fifth-degree felony; and possession of cocaine, a fifth-degree felony, contained in a grand jury indictment filed on June 20.
A 27-year-old woman, also a Lancaster resident, who was driving the vehicle at the time of the traffic stop, was taken into custody on a misdemeanor warrant from Muskingum County.
The woman was transported to the Guernsey-Muskingum county line and transferred into the custody of a Muskingum County sheriff's deputy.
A 3-year-old child in the 1998 Cadillac Deville was released into the custody of the family members, who also removed the vehicle from I-70 after it was searched by authorities.
According to reports, Dep. Ben Coblentz was stationary on I-70 when he observed the Cadillac pass his location without functional taillights.
A traffic stop was conducted at 8:40 p.m. at the Cambridge/Southgate Parkway exit near mile post 178 on I-70 and the male passenger immediately fled from the vehicle's front passenger seat into a nearby wooded area.
The driver identified the male, but advised Coblentz she didn't know why he fled. A check of the suspect's name by a sheriff's dispatcher revealed the felony warrant.
The suspect was last seen jumping a fence and fleeing westbound toward Dozer Road, an access road that runs parallel to the highway.
Cambridge police and sheriff's K-9 units responded to the area and located a track believed to be from the suspect.
A Cambridge police officer also reported finding wet foot prints in the area of Dozer Road where the suspect is believed to have crossed a nearby creek.
The female driver's sister arrived with her boyfriend to take custody of the child and remove the vehicle from the interstate. The van driven by the boyfriend was later seen by a police detective circling the parking lot of a hotel on Dozer Road. The van was seen a short time later in the area of Dozer Road with a passenger that was not in the vehicle when it left I-70 with the child.
A sheriff's detective followed the vehicle to the area of Weedon Avenue and Spring Street in the city and witnessed the suspect exit the vehicle at approximately 9:35 p.m.
The suspect again fled on foot into a nearby wooded area with the detective in pursuit.
Sheriff's K-9 Hoke was again deployed while Cambridge police officers and troopers established a perimeter around the neighborhood.
The patrol helicopter arrived at 10 p.m. to assist the officers searching the area for the suspect. Twenty minutes later, the aviation unit spotted a heat source near a brushy area on Spring Street, but officers were unable to locate the suspect.
Pings were conducted for cell phones possibly in the possession of the suspect and one came back to the 700 block of South Ninth Street in Cambridge.
Authorities searched the area but were unable to locate the suspect, according to a dispatch log at the sheriff's office.
The manhunt was then terminated just after 11:30 p.m.
No other information was available Tuesday. The incident remains under investigation by the sheriff's office.