KANAB, Utah, Aug. 9, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Multiple agencies joined an 8-hour chase and search Wednesday morning that began near Kanab and ended just across the border in Page, Arizona.
The elusive suspect, police said, tripped up by a credit card.
He was finally corralled at about 10 a.m. Wednesday after he used a stolen credit card at a Walmart in Page.
The card’s Kanab owner had called police after he was notified of the card’s use. After checking for it in his vehicle only to find the vehicle stolen.
According to the Kane County Sheriff’s Office 7 p.m. telling of the tale tonight on social media, events began around 2 a.m. Wednesday.
A resident of the Bryce Woodlands subdivision near Kanab called 911 suspecting his neighbor across the street was being burglarized. He confronted what the sheriff’s office described as perpetrators who then fled in a Jeep with a trailer towing an ATV.
At some point the trailer with the ATV was found in a ditch, disconnected from the Jeep along a bumpy dirt road, the Jeep believed to have found its way onto US 89.
A chase ensued hours later on US 89 when deputies spotted the suspect Jeep, which went through Kanab, running stop signs and reaching speeds of 90 mph, eventually turning south toward Arizona.
Sometime after 6 a.m. the Jeep was found abandoned on the edge of Kanab Creek, officers pursuing a lone suspect on foot. The ensuing pre-dawn search involved Kane County Sheriff’s Office SWAT members, along with officers from Kanab, a BLM ranger, Utah Highway Patrol troopers and a UHP helicopter.
To no avail.
By 9:30 a.m. officers were notified of the call from the Kanab citizen whose stolen credit card had turned up in the Page Walmart.
Police there were notified, who located the stolen car and arrested driver Kyle Lang Turner, 34, of Joseph, Utah. No word from police about a co-defendant.
Page police found Walmart receipts in the vehicle and other items purchased with the stolen cards, plural, and booked Turner into the Coconino County Jail for the alleged stolen cards and vehicle theft.
“Kane County is grateful to the many law enforcement partners who assisted with this incident,” the Kane County Sheriff’s post concludes.
“The great collaboration we share in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona brought about a peaceful resolution.”
