Rich Flowers
The Athens Review
Athens —
The Henderson County Sheriff’s Department continued to search Thursday for a man who eluded law officers in an automobile pursuit and foot chase near Coffee City.
HCSO Deputy Adam Smith said authorities have a pretty good idea of the man’s identity, and believe he is staying in the Frankston area.
Smith described him as a white male, 25-to-30-years old.
According to HCSO reports, the chase began shortly after 12:30 p.m., Wednesday. Smith said he saw the driver of a vehicle commit a minor traffic offense.
When Smith pulled in behind the vehicle, the vehicle ran a stop sign and sped away.
“He sort of made a big circle and came back to where he was when he started,” Smith said.
At that point, the driver apparently misjudged a turn, and stopped the vehicle near a ditch.
“He took off on foot, and left his shoes in the car,” Smith said.
A 28-year-old woman was also left in the car. Smith said she appeared to be confused as to what had caused the driver to attempt to outrun authorities, and was released.
“She claimed she was trying to get a ride to see her mother-in-law, and I guess she just got in the car with the wrong guy at the wrong time,” Smith said.
“I was guessing he wouldn’t get away too far barefoot, running around in the woods,” Smith said.
The Briarwood Bay area has plenty of abandoned houses where a person can hide, Smith said.
“Even with the amount of people we had running around looking for him, we still weren’t able to find him,” he said.
The Department of Public Safety and Coffee City Police Department were involved in the chase, and authorities were aided by private citizens.
