A Sebastian County stabbing suspect who had been on the run since October was captured in Pope County Sunday morning.
Major Kevin Nickson with the Sebastian County Sheriff’s Office confirms Wesley Elmore, 31, is in custody and charges are pending.
According to the Pope County Sheriff, a state trooper stopped a burgundy Ford Ranger near mile marker 86 on Interstate 40 Saturday. A man and woman were inside. The man, later identified as Elmore, took off on foot.
Officers from surrounding departments, K-9s, along with Arkansas State Police helicopters, searched for Elmore all night.
He was spotted Sunday morning in a field. The sheriff says Elmore ran into the backyard of a residence and laid down on the ground to wait for officers to take him into custody near Crow Mountain Road.
The sheriff believes Elmore was physically exhausted because officers had been putting the pressure on him and pursuing him all night long.
Elmore is accused in the Oct. 25 stabbing at the Kitchenette Apartments in Huntington that left a local man with a broken rib and punctured lung.
Deputies have been following up on tips and sightings of Elmore since the stabbing occurred. Earlier in the month deputies searched wooded area near Highway 252. According to Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck the department received a tip that Elmore might have been staying in a “barn or a shop” behind a residence on Old Arko Road. Dogs were used to follow Elmore’s scent into the woods, but deputies could not find him.
Days later, a Greenwood elementary school as put on lockdown after someone reported Elmore was spotted near Highway 71 and walked toward the Walmart, according to Greenwood Police Chief Will Dawson.
Officers later determined it was a misunderstanding and Elmore was not there.
