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One arrested, one sought in meth bust PDF Print E-mail
Staff Reports
Friday, 01 May 2009 00:00

WOLCOTTVILLE — A Wolcottville woman has been arrested and a man is being sought after a methamphetamine bust involving bounty hunters and police in Wolcottville early Thursday, according to the Noble County Sheriff’s Department.

Noble County received a call for assistance from bounty hunter Joseph Burdsall who had located two suspects identified as Kayla Sturdivant, 24, of Wolcottville and Jason Wallen, 29, of Kendallville. Before police could arrive, a vehicle picked the two up and went south on S.R. 9. The bounty hunters followed; their vehicle was detected on Northport Road outside Rome City.

Attempts were made to block the vehicle before police units arrived, and the bounty hunters had it stopped and Sturdivant in custody before officers were on the scene. Wallen allegedly ran into a wooded area and escaped capture. Deputy Brandon Chordas and Kendallville K-9 Officer Glenn Hurst tracked Wallen, whose trail stopped at the next roadway.

In the vehicle with Wallen’s and Sturdivant’s belongings, police allegedly found a meth lab in a backpack. The Indiana State Police Cladestine Lab Team was notified and the vehicle impounded for processing by a team that was already processing a lab in LaGrange County at the time.

Sturdivant was booked into the Noble County Jail at 3:04 a.m. on seven counts of theft — check deception, two counts of possession of precursors with intent to manufacture meth and one count each of attempted manufacturing of meth, failure to appear, dealing in meth and possession of paraphernalia. She was held on $7,500 bond. Some of the new charges listed are preliminary, pending official charges filed by the Noble County Prosecutor’s Office.

Charges against Wallen, who remained at large Thursday afternoon, are pending with the prosecutor’s office.