Police in California pursued a man and a woman from OR on Interstate 5 at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour (160.93 kph) Tuesday and arrested them for allegedly kidnapping a woman and her two sons and shooting and critically wounding a man in a separate incident. Neither has been charged in Sawyer’s disappearance.
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SALEM, Ore. – A small Northern California town was rocked by a shooting, kidnapping and carjacking on Tuesday, all allegedly committed by a man and woman from OR who led police on a high-speed chase before they were captured.
The arrested man was being sought in the disappearance of a woman from Oregon. The man, who has not been identified, was hospitalized in critical and unstable condition. Five minutes later, another man at a gas station called to report his vehicle was stolen with three family members still inside.
Bowles said Lara forced one of the man’s sons to drive at gunpoint. Shortly after 7 a.m., CHP troopers arrested two suspects and recovered the vehicle near Red Bluff, about 120 miles south of Yreka.
The terrifying odyssey of the kidnapped family ended after the California Highway Patrol finally stopped the vehicle near Redding. Authorities announced on the morning of July 26 that 31-year-old Edwin Lara had been arrested without incident along I-5 close to Red Bluff, some 300 miles from where Sawyer, 23, lived in Bend, Oregon.
Lara and a woman, Aundrea Maes, of Salem, were arrested after a crime spree in Yreka, California early Tuesday morning. Police haven’t explained Lara’s alleged connection to the case. As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, Lara and Maes were being transferred from Tehama County jail to Yreka.
A highway patrol officer in Red Bluff, 100 miles south of Weed, saw a auto speeding on the interstate and tried to pull it over. “We’re a small department and stretched beyond our resources right now”.
Police said a body has been found that is believed to be Sawyer’s, and a coroner is trying to confirm the identity.
“We’re working closely with Bend, Oregon officials to try to put the pieces together there”, Bowles said.
Lara, a part-time security guard at COCC, started working at the college in December 2014, first as cadet and then as part-time guard with regular shifts, according to COCC Director of College Relations Ron Paradis.
“We’re cooperating with the police as best we can”, Paradis said, declining to comment further.
Sawyer’s mother, Jane VanCleave, told KTVZ that her daughter is close with the rest of her family and it’s very unusual for them to not hear from her. VanCleave said, “She has four younger brothers that desperately want their sister home”.
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Newspaper reports from 2009 and 2010 list Isabel Ponce-Lara as a student at the community college, and being on the dean’s list.
