Suspect on Missouri’s most wanted list caught
ABC 17 News confirmed Vernon Phelps, 48, who is on Missouri’s Most Wanted List, is now in custody. Members of the Jefferson City police SWAT team and MUSTANG drug task force carried out a search warrant around 8:30 a.m. Thursday on Grey Fox Terrace, near Route C and Highway 179. They believed Phelps was hiding in an apartment to avoid capture.
Phelps tried to run but was quickly arrested. Two women and two children were there at the time, but no one was hurt.
His latest escape began around midnight Thursday, June 2, when Maries County deputies tried to stop a driver for a traffic violation. That led to a chase between the driver, identified as Vernon Phelps, and deputies. The chase, which started in Maries County, also went through Osage and Miller Counties.
The suspect’s vehicle was later found wrecked and abandoned in an area of Miller County west of Meta. Deputies searched on foot while the Highway Patrol searched in the air for several hours. The manhunt was called off around 6 a.m.
Phelps has felony warrants out for his arrest, and according to the Maries County Sheriff’s Office, he is a parole absconder. He is a suspect in several vehicle thefts; Thursday’s chase was apparently the second for Phelps in five weeks.
