Update 12:05 p.m. – Mayor Phillip Britt said the fourth suspect is in custody.
Three suspects are in jail after allegedly running out of gas while running from the law.
Casandra Lee Laclaire, Christopher Laclaire, and Chasity Kaye Locklear were arrested after a manhunt involving Chadbourn Police and the sheriff’s office.
Casandra LaClaire, 44, was held under $3,500 secured bond on two counts of misdemeanor larceny, according to Detention Center records. Her husband Christopher, 47, faces charges of felony fleeing to elude arrest, driving while license revoked, misdemeanor larceny, and a probation violation. Bond was set at $15,000 for the fleeing charge, but he was held without bond for another agency. Chastity Locklear, 38, was charged with fleeing to elude arrest and misdemeanor larceny. Her bond was set at $10,000.
All three suspects face additional charges in other jurisdictions, Chadbourn Mayor Phillip Britt said.
Chadbourn Police were called to the Advance Auto store on Joe Brown Highway around 4:30 p.m. to a report of four individuals shoplifting “high dollar items,” Britt said. The suspects fled in a “bluish-purple” SUV.
A CPD officer spotted the vehicle and initiated as traffic stop. The suspect vehicle sped down U.S. 74 to Cerro Gordo, pursued by CPD and the sheriff’s office. At one point, Britt said, the driver of the SUV “did a U-turn” and one of the females briefly fell out of the vehicle.
Britt said the suspects managed to escape their pursuers, and law enforcement began searching the area.
“While they were looking for the vehicle,” Britt said, “there was a call from a resident about a strange vehicle with two men and two women in a back yard.
“They had run out of gas and were trying to beg gas money from people.”
Units descended on the address, and Locklear and Mrs. LaClaire were arrested at the vehicle. Sheriff Bill Rogers said the county K9 team, tracked down Christopher LaClaire.
