Man with U.S. Marshals warrant arrested after Montgomery County manhunt
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
EDITOR'S NOTE: A name misspelled because of a source error has been corrected.
A five-hour-long manhunt in Montgomery County ended Thursday night with a man with a nationwide extradition warrant arrested.
According to a press release from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, deputies were called at 6:30 a.m. to the 100 block of Strube Road in New Florence for a report of a man in camouflage walking on private property. Deputies were unable to locate the man, later identified as 52-year-old John W. Atterberry, of Kansas City.
Deputies responded to another report of trespassing just before 5 p.m. in the 300 block of South Highway 19. Two people were seen wearing camouflage on a property. One of them allegedly got a ride from the area and Atterberry left on foot, and has not yet been found.
Lacey Heying, who lives on one of the properties, said her trail camera caught the two men that morning.
“That morning, the camera went off, and I said, ‘oh gosh, you know, we finally got a deer on camera.’ and so I opened it up, and it was two gentlemen dressed in camo heading towards our woods where my deer stand is.”
Heying said law enforcement told neighbors the men were brothers. She also said police told them the men had been taking ginseng from the property for years. “We were later told by law enforcement that they’d been stealing from our property for years, and this is the first year that they actually had been caught.”
Heying also said that there were 2 to 3 helicopters circling the area, along with three K-9 units and drones.
The release states that when deputies tried to approach Atterberry on foot, he ran into a wooded area. Deputies learned that Atterberry had an outstanding no-bond warrant through the U.S. Marshals Service for weapons-related charges with a nationwide extradition, according to the sheriff's office.
Just after 7:15 p.m., a property owner's deer camera caught Atterberry in the 100 block of Strube Road. Law enforcement repositioned their perimeter and search.
A Highway Patrol drone saw Atterberry lying in a tree line south of a pond. Deputies and troopers went to detain him, but lost sight. During the search, they found his bag, which had a large quantity of ginseng, according to the sheriff's office.
At around 10 p.m., MSHP drone and aircraft crews found Atterberry hiding in a tree. Deputies, officers and a K9 team surrounded the tree and arrested him without incident, the sheriff's office says.
Atterberry was taken to the Montgomery County Jail on the outstanding warrant and multiple charges of first-degree trespassing and felony resisting arrest.
The Missouri Department of Conservation seized the ginseng. The release states additional charges may come after they investigate potential violations in possession limits and harvesting without a permit.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol Troops F and B; MSHP Aircraft, Drone and K9 divisions; Missouri Department of Conservation; Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and a department K9; and Montgomery County Communications all took part in the search.
