Tracking dogs & aviation assets used in manhunt that ends in arrest, SC cops say
There was a large law enforcement presence Sunday in South Carolina as the search for a wanted man ended with an arrest, according to the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office.
Jason Julian Wertz, a 43-year-old Honea Path resident, was charged with two counts of motor vehicle theft and resisting arrest, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The incident began as deputies investigated a series of auto thefts in the area near Bush River Road and Belfast Road in Newberry County, according to the release. One of the stolen vehicles was spotted in the Belfast Road area, before it turned onto Moates Road, the sheriff’s office said.
The stolen vehicle then turned onto an unpaved road and the suspected car thief, later identified as Wertz, ran away into a large cutover that formerly a wooded area where trees had been cleared, according to the release.
Deputies continued their pursuit and were soon joined by bloodhounds from the sheriff’s office in addition to tracking dogs from South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and also received assistance from aviation assets, according to the release.
Wertz was eventually located about a mile away in what the sheriff’s office called a “dense brush.”
Wertz, who was out on bond for a similar crime in Greenwood County, appeared to be living out of his car on property owned by a timber asset company, the sheriff’s office said.
He is being held at the Newberry County Detention Center where he’s waiting for a bond hearing, jail records show.
Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster thanked citizens in the area of the manhunt for their assistance, as well as the Newberry Police Department, SLED and the 911 dispatchers “for their role in guiding responding deputies into the remote area to initiate the search,” the sheriff’s office said.
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