Triple murder suspect captured by Arkansas police after days of manhunt
Triple murder suspect captured by Arkansas police after days of manhunt

Triple murder suspect captured by Arkansas police after days of manhunt

A “very dangerous” armed criminal accused of at least three murders in two states has been arrested following a two-day manhunt. Stacy Lee Drake, 50, was arrested around 10 a.m. Thursday by the Morrilton Police Department and Arkansas State Police, according to a news release from the Conway County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas.

He was found in the woods near the intersection of University Boulevard and Poor Farm Road, just west of a Walmart. Drake was linked to the murder of a man and woman in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, whose bodies were found at a business around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation . He is also accused of the May 14 murder of Russell Andrews, 62, in Alabama, Tuscaloosa County sheriff’s deputies said.

Stacy Lee Drake was captured Thursday in Arkansas, he was wanted for several murders (Arkansas Department of Public Safety) Drake is being held at the Conway County Detention Center. No further details were immediately provided by authorities. Drake, whose last known address was in Birmingham, Alabama, was “in Tuscaloosa a few weeks” before the murder and “used a false name,” according to a statement from sheriff’s Capt. Jack Kennedy. The victims have not been identified by police, but one of the victims in the Oklahoma double homicide has been named by his family as Taylor Sharp. In a social media post before his arrest, Sharp’s family urged people to be careful if they encountered Drake.

“My family needs prayers and we also want justice for my nephew Taylor Sharp, he was one of two victims murdered in Sequoyah County,” Linda Biggs posted on Facebook.

According  to KSCB News Drake, 5, was found in the woods near the intersection of University Boulevard and Poor Farm Road, just west of a Walmart. (Arkansas State Police) The manhunt began after the Morrilton Police department received a tip from state police Tuesday regarding a stolen vehicle, parked at a local hotel, that had been spotted at the scene of a double murder in Oklahoma. Arkansas State Police warned residents in the Morrilton area, where he was last seen, to keep an eye out for Drake who had “purchased camping equipment and all indications are that it is still in the Morrilton region”, approximately 50 km away. miles northwest of Little Rock, state police said at the time. Drake is a convicted felon with a sprawling criminal record that includes burglary, kidnapping, armed robbery, and aggravated assault on an officer. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2010 after being convicted of carjacking; being a felon in possession of a firearm; and brandishing a gun during the carjacking.

Tuscaloosa FBI office Statement

Drake is a convicted felon with a sprawling criminal record (Morriston Police Department) Drake was accused of threatening a man with a .45 caliber pistol as the man left a grocery store and stole his wallet, food and his red GMC truck. He was chased by police for eight miles before crashing into the truck and being captured. At the time, he was being prosecuted for at least four other crimes in
Oklahoma, Arkansas and Alabama, according to the Tuscaloosa FBI office.