The Daily Standard
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CELINA - The Mercer County Sheriff's Office arrested Joshua Cole shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday evening after he allegedly evaded their attempts to take him into custody earlier in the day on the south side of Grand Lake near Montezuma, triggering a search by K-9, drone and boat.
Cole, 37, originally from Celina, had been residing in the Montezuma area after walking out of a drug treatment program in Pike County several days ago, Mercer County Sheriff Doug Timmerman told The Daily Standard.
He also has an outstanding warrant for child support, Timmerman said.
"Tips led to the detectives running surveillance today, and they witnessed him moving back-and-forth on the south side of the lake," Timmerman said. "When they went to approach him, he was standing by a golf cart and he took off running and tried to get back into the house that he was at. He was trying to slam the door as the detectives were trying to get into the house to arrest him."
Megan Hug, 35, allegedly placed herself in between the detectives and told Cole to run, Timmerman said. She was arrested for obstructing official business, a second degree misdemeanor, and taken to the Mercer County jail.
"He did then manage to run out of the back of the house through the garage," Timmerman said. "Detectives chased him for quite a while until he dove into the lake. They observed him in the lake, but then with the heavy brush up along the shorelines they kind of lost track of him."
A K-9 was brought to the scene in an attempt to track Cole.
"We also had our drone out there looking for him," Timmerman said at one point. "We took a boat out into the channel looking for him and so far we haven't been able to find him. There'll be additional charges for him coming."
Later in the evening, detectives apprehended Cole at the same residence where they had searched earlier in the day, Timmerman told the newspaper.
