Oregon man and woman arrested in California over shooting and kidnapping
An Oregon man and woman have been arrested following a short police chase in California for allegedly carjacking a woman and her two sons at gunpoint and shooting an elderly man in a separate incident.
Authorities said Edwin Enoc Lara, 31, and Aundrea Elizabeth Maes, 19, were taken into custody on Tuesday after they were pursued by police on Interstate 5 at speeds of more than 100mph.
On Monday, police in Bend, Oregon, said they were looking for Lara as a 'person of interest,' now a suspect, in the disappearance and of 23-year-old Kaylee Sawyer from Bend.
On Tuesday, authorities said they arrested 31-year-old Edwin Lara and 19-year-old Aundrea Elizabeth Maes, both from Oregon, following a violent crime spree in Yreka, California. Police in Oregon said on Monday they were looking for Lara as a 'person of interest' in the disappearance of 23-year-old Kaylee Sawyer (right)
Sawyer, described as having blonde hair and blue-green eyes, was last seen around 1am on Sunday near her apartment, located near Central Oregon Community College where Lara worked as a campus security guard.
She was wearing a black dress and brown boots, and was carrying a green purse, police said.
Her family reported her missing on Sunday just after 7pm.
Earlier reports indicated Sawyer has a cell phone but authorities believe it was turned off, and the Bend Bulletin reported she is not a student at the Central Oregon Community College.
Family members also said her car was still in the parking lot of her apartment.
A short time after news of Sawyer's disappearance was made public, a newly-hired Bend Police Officer Isabel Ponce-Lara reported her husband, Lara, may be involved, Redding.com reported.
Not long after, Lara was named as a person of interest.
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Sawyer, (pictured left and right) described as having blonde hair and blue-green eyes, was last seen around 1am on Sunday
She was last seen near her apartment, located near Central Oregon Community College (pictured) where Lara worked as a campus security guard
Just before midnight on Monday, Bend police said they were changing their investigation from a missing person to a homicide and described Lara, from Redmond, as likely armed and dangerous.
Lt. Clint Burleigh of the Bend Police Department said Sawyer's body has not been found, and declined to say what information caused detectives to make it a homicide investigation.
'There is a lot of information coming out, quickly,' he told AP. 'It is very fluid.'
Lara had worked as a part-time public safety officer at the community college since December 2014, said Ron Paradis, executive director of college relations.
'We're cooperating with the police as best we can,' Paradis said, declining to comment further.
On Tuesday, Lara and Maes were booked into the Tehama County jail on charges including attempted murder, kidnapping, carjacking and burglary, the Yreka Police Department said.
An officer pictured at the scene of a Super 8 Motel in Yreka, California. The mayhem erupted near dawn on Tuesday in Yreka when a man was shot in the stomach at the motel at around 5am
Five minutes after police got the call about the shooting at the motel, a man called from a Mobil gas station (pictured), saying his car had been taken with his family still inside
Yreka, a former gold mining town of about 7,500 people in Siskiyou County, is where the mayhem erupted near dawn on Tuesday.
It started when a man was shot in the stomach at the Super 8 Motel in town at around 5am.
The man, who has not been identified, was taken to Fairchild Medical Center in critical and unstable condition.
Five minutes after police got the call about the shooting, a man called from a Mobil gas station, saying his Honda Accord had been taken with his family still inside.
TIMELINE OF VIOLENT CRIME SPREE IN YREKA, CALIFORNIA
Tuesday, July 26
5.00am - Yreka Police Department receives a call about a shooting victim at Super 8 Motel on 136 Montague Road in Yreka
Officers on scene and contacted victim who had been shot in the stomach
The victim was transported the victim to Fairchild Medical Center
5.05am - Police receive a call from a male located at Mobil gas station on 735 N. Main St. who reported his car was taken with his three family members still inside the car
Officers from several agencies searched the area for the suspect/suspects
5.41am - Police receive a 911 call from the three victims who reported they were dropped off on Interstate 5, north of the Weed rest area and were unharmed
Officers responded to the area and transported the victims to the Yreka Police Department
6.18am - Police received information about a cell phone being pinged with a possible location of the suspects on Intestate 5, north of Redding
7.01am - Red Bluff CHP advised that they had two suspects, Edwin Lara and Aundrea Maes, in custody and the victim’s vehicle
<!- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/news/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 - ->Advertisement'The man had come out of the gas station to see his dog running around and his car gone,' Yreka Police Chief Brian Bowles told The Associated Press.
He said Lara allegedly forced, at gunpoint, one of the man's sons to drive.
The mother and two sons were later dropped off at a rest stop at around 5.41am along the interstate about 30 miles south of Yreka, near the town of Weed.
Law enforcement officers were pinging three cell phones to get the location of the stolen car, Bowles said.
A highway patrol officer in Red Bluff, 100 miles south of Weed, saw a car speeding on the interstate and tried to pull it over.
When it did dot comply, officers gave chase, the highway patrol said in a statement.
Police from the nearby town of Corning joined in before Lara pulled over and was arrested at around 7.01am, along with Maes.
'We have got crime scenes at a motel, a gas station and in Red Bluff more than 100 miles away,' Bowles said.
'We're a small department and stretched beyond our resources right now.'
Maes' grandmother told KATU that her granddaughter did not come home from work on Monday evening and believes she might have been taken against her will.
No other information about Sawyer's disappearance has been released and a vigil was being held on Tuesday evening to honor her in Bend.
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