A Franklin teenager was arrested Monday night after evading capture for over a year.
Shane Saunders Spurgeon, 19, of 2916 Traditions Court, Franklin, was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail Monday on charges of escaping, a level 5 felony. He is being held on an $10,250 bond.
According to the probable cause affidavit from the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office, on June 22, 2015, an officer with the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department responded to an escaped person from the Life Line Youth and Family Services facility.
The officer spoke with a Life Line employee who advised he discovered Spurgeon was missing. The employee contacted police and went looking for Spurgeon. When he drove by the Marathon gas station at the intersection of U.S. 30 and Ind. 13, he observed Spurgeon walking out of the station and run around the gas station. The employee allegedly witnessed Spurgeon running toward a vehicle, requesting it stop.
The employee recognized the driver of the vehicle as a former Life Line employee that had been fired.
Officers spoke with the former employee who allegedly admitted she had worked at Life Line and was terminated for testing positive for marijuana. She advised she was in Pierceton and received a call from Spurgeon, requesting she pick him up at the gas station. She was aware Spurgeon was an inmate at Life Line.
The female further advised Spurgeon entered her vehicle at the gas station and they left the area. She told police she took him north on Ind. 13, approximately 1-1/2 miles, and then Spurgeon exited her vehicle. She allegedly admitted she and Spurgeon had a relationship that was not appropriate with her position as a youth treatment specialist at Life Line.
Officers used a canine to conduct an outer air search of the woman’s vehicle and the canine alerted. Officers searched her vehicle and located three plastic bags that contained a green leafy substance identified as marijuana that weighed less than 4 grams. Officers also located love letters between the female and Spurgeon where they both indicated they loved each other.
Spurgeon orignally was sentenced to Life Line, also known as Pierceton Woods Academy, by an Indiana circuit court judge out of Johnson County.
