ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995                   TAG: 9505040115
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-15   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PANDAPAS POND                                LENGTH: Medium

TRACKING DOG HELPS CATCH MAN FLEEING POLICE

A host of police officers and deputies spent much of Wednesday searching for two men who ran from a state trooper during a morning traffic stop at the Montgomery-Giles county line. One of the men is accused of striking the trooper in the back as he tried to handcuff the other.

But it was Josh, a Giles County Sheriff's Office tracking dog, that found one suspect shortly after two Virginia Tech officers spotted movement in the woods just off a National Forest Service road.

Kenneth Wright, 23, of the Doe Creek section of Giles County, was taken into custody about 5:30 p.m.- nine hours after Trooper A.C. Henderson tried to stop a car for speeding.

Henderson was running radar about 8:30 a.m. when a car appeared to be pulling over. Instead, the driver jumped from the car and fled into the woods. Henderson caught up to him and was handcuffing him when he was struck in the back with a stick by a second man, State Police First Sgt. F.W. Duffy said.

Wright, identified as the driver of the car, will be charged with speeding and resisting arrest, Duffy said.

Minutes after the dog - handled by Giles County Cpl. Morgan Millirons - entered the woods, a scent was picked up. Josh then found his target buried under leaves and laurel.

"If it hadn't been for the dog, you would have walked by him," said Lt. Larry Snidow of the Tech police.

Officers from state police, Virginia Tech, George Washington and Jefferson National Forests and Montgomery and Giles counties' sheriff's offices searched the woods near Pandapas Pond and Poverty Creek at the Giles-Montgomery County line. A state police helicopter pilot also assisted in the search.

The search continued Wednesday evening for the second man. 


 by CNB