Daylong manhunt ends without suspects' capture
By John Joyce
Published in News on February 3, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office Airwatch Team prepares to take off one last time before calling it a night Tuesday during the hunt for a suspect who broke into a Fremont home.
A daylong manhunt in a swampy, wooded area off of Aycock Dairy Road came to a close late Tuesday night without a suspect in custody, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office said.
Two suspects have been identified in a residential break-in earlier that day, but both men managed to elude law enforcement, Sheriff Larry Pierce said.
The Wayne County SWAT Team, several K-9 units, and the Airwatch Team methodically combed a 30-acre patch of woods, thick with briars and under brush, well into the night without success.
Pierce said the search will continue today.
"We have warrants secured on one, we are working on securing warrants for the other."
The manhunt began after a resident came home to find two men had broken into her home.
Cpl. Jason Sasser arrived in the area shortly after the call came out and began a chase that quickly developed into an all-out manhunt.
"At about 10:30 a.m. the call came out to a break-in that had just occurred," Sasser said. The resident at 316 Aycock Dairy Road had come home to surprise to two men who had broken into her home.
The men fled in a white Ford pick-up, which Sasser recognized as it passed him on his way to the scene.
"I turned around on him, but I guess he recognized that and he took off," he said. Sasser gave chase, but the suspect had a good head start. The chase led to an open field off of Memorial Church Road where the driver drove his truck into a wooded area and jumped out and ran.
Sasser, supervisor of the Sheriff's Office K-9 unit, deployed his working dog Shorty and did a fast track, but the dog lost the scent at the edge of a large swamp deep into the woods.
"We had to call off the search with the suspect unable to be located," Sasser said.
Members of the Aggressive Criminal Enforcement Team and the sheriff's office aviation unit, Airwatch, were called in to assist, but found no sign of the suspects.
Later in the day, however, a farmer off of Aycock Dairy Road went out to check his barns and found one of them with an open door he knew should have been closed. As he approached the door, someone came rushing out of the barn and ran into a thick, wooded patch on his land.
"I flushed him out of one of my barns," Julian Aycock said. "I was startled, but I wasn't scared."
Aycock knew the sheriff's office had been in the area throughout the day looking for someone. He immediately called the sheriff's office main line and deputies-- already nearby -- swarmed the area.
Airwatch quickly redeployed and the SWAT team assembled at a command post on Aycock's farm.
As darkness fell, a 12-man SWAT team armed with night vision and tactical gear, including assault rifles and machetes to cut through the brush, went into the woods. The Airwatch Team circled above using the "night sun," a powerful searchlight mounted on the aircraft, and a FLIR (forward looking infrared radar) to attempt to locate the suspect in the dense woods.
Several times the search team thought they had a position on the suspect, but located instead what turned out be a deer or they were unable to get to the area of interest in time. If the suspect was in fact still in there, he was being still and might have buried himself under the brush, one SWAT member surmised.
At one point, a possum crossed an open field in front of a line of 10 or more sheriff's office vehicles with their headlights trained on the wood line.
The creature took its time waddling across Aycock's plowed field, but little else stirred.
At 10:45 p.m., with the helicopter running low on fuel, Pierce called off the search.
"Were going to leave about six deputies here in the area and around the house to let the community know it is safe for the night. Tomorrow we will pick upon the investigation and try to locate these suspects, serve these warrants on them," Pierce said.
For the Aycock family, the commotion could not come to an end soon enough. In addition to the 20 or 30 deputies on their property and the helicopter flying search patterns over head, the Nahunta and Fremont Volunteer Fire Departments had deployed vehicles with floodlights to the area. All of the sheriff's office vehicles on scene, the command post and the fire trucks had been running, lights on, for more than four hours.
"I can't remember anything like this ever happening, not in my lifetime," he said. "Of course, I am concerned for my family.
Sheriff Pierce thanked Aycock for his cooperation and lauded the efforts of his deputies for the their quick response.
"I just want to thank all of our people for heir quick and aggressive response. That includes our command staff, SWAT and ACE Team, patrol. All of our divisions worked really well together," he said.
Today, the investigation is ongoing. The identities of the two suspects are being withheld for the time being. Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 919-735-2255 or text tips to 919-222-4230.
Callers can remain anonymous and tips leading to a felony arrest are eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.