“Mother-daughter” car-stealing team caught in mid-Missouri

UPDATE: Samantha Rachels has been charged the following: resisting arrest for a felony, failing to yield to an emergency vehicle, careless driving – involving an accident, driving with a revoked/suspended license, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

Williams is charged with tampering with second degree tampering with a motor vehicle.

ORGINAL STORY: A woman in Alton, Illinois claims that two woman taken into custody in Mid-Missouri stole her car in late July.

Diane Williams, 44, and Samantha Rachels, 23 were taken into custody Thursday morning after leading law enforcement on a chase through Boone, Callaway, Montgomery, and finally, Warren county. The Mitsubishi Eclipse they were driving, according to the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, was possibly stolen from Arnold earlier in the day.

According to an Illinois woman, who requested to remain anonymous, Williams and Rachels approached her at a gas station in Alton on July 22 to ask if they could get a ride to a nearby relative’s house. After driving to multiple houses to find no one home, the woman stopped at a convenience store and left Williams and Rachels alone in her car. When she returned, the two and the car were gone.

The two claimed to be mother and daughter, and they both have a criminal record in Illinois.

Diane Williams pleaded guilty to a felony theft that occurred in 2014, and has a total of seven misdemeanors, which include trespassing and theft charges. Williams also has five assorted traffic charges that include driving with a revoked and driving with an uninsured vehicle.

Samantha Rachels has two misdemeanor theft charges as well as two suspended license charges.