Ohio Murder Suspect Samuel Littleton Apprehended in W.Va.
Samuel Littleton II, the subject of a nationwide manhunt, is on the loose
Feb. 23, 2011— -- Samuel Littleton II, the suspect in the murder of an Ohio woman, was apprehended Wednesday in West Virginia. The car he had abandoned belonged to an elderly Ohio couple who has been reported missing, police said.
Littleton was apprehended late Wednesday morning in the woods behind a Walmart in Princeton, W.Va., State Police Capt. J.L. Cahill said at a news conference. The suspect was flushed out by a police helicopter and caught after a brief chase on foot, according to The Associated Press.
The car that Littleton, 37, was last believed to have been driving had been found and seized at a Walmart in Princeton late Tuesday. The discovery was made one day after he made a call to his father from a pay phone in a West Virginia town.
Littleton is wanted in the stabbing death of Tiffany Brown, 26, of Bellefontaine, Ohio.
"All we know is that the suspect is in custody," a spokeswoman for Princeton police told ABC News. "There are no further details being released at this time."
The car, a gray and green 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis, belongs to Richard Russell, 84, and his wife Gladis, 85, who were reported missing from Logan County, Ohio, Wednesday. There is still no sign of the couple, who police have described as old and infirm.
"The investigation is considered 'national' in every sense," Bellefontaine, Ohio, police chief Brad K. Kunze, wrote in a statement.
"Clearly the Russells are innocent victims who were merely targeted by Littleton to help further his escape from justice," the release continued. "Dick and Gladis Russell are very fragile and do not deserve this unfortunate situation that they they have been placed [in]."
Littleton called a member of his family, possibly his father, from a telephone just down the street from the state police barracks in Princeton, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported.
Tiffany Brown was discovered stabbed to death in the basement of the Ohio house Littleton shared with her mother. Littleton is wanted on four felony counts: murder, felonious assault, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.
Littleton knew the Russells because they sold him the house in which Brown's body was found, police said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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