A fugitive wanted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and Pickens County Sheriff’s Office was caught by Fannin County deputies and a GBI agent late Saturday night, August 8.
Sheriff Dane Kirby said Michael Travis Case, 37, was taken into custody just inside the Fannin County/Gilmer County line.
The sheriff said deputies began looking for Case Friday night in the area of the old Fannin Inn Motel and Restaurant, now the Rustic Inn, on APD Highway 515 south of Blue Ridge.
Law enforcement officers spent some seven hours tracking Case with the help of a K-9 search dog, but were unable to locate the suspect. At the same time, interviews with witnesses who said they saw Case produced conflicting reports.
Saturday, the sheriff’s office received a call from a citizen who spotted Case on a Ring doorbell, according to Investigations Captain Justin Turner. The location was within about half a mile of where the previous night’s search had centered. “He was not in the area long, and was not far from the original location,” Turner said.
About 9:15 p.m., deputies and GBI Agent Jamie Abercrombie began another search with the help of a K-9 and a helicopter equipped with FLIR, thermal night vision.
Turner said shortly before midnight Case was found hiding in the woods and arrested without incident.
A wanted poster issued by the GBI and Pickens County Sheriff’s Office issued late last week said Case was last seen in the area of the Rustic Inn Friday, August 7.
He was wanted on warrants charging him with aggravated child molestation and statutory rape, and at least one other charge. The wanted flyer said that while warrants had been taken, the investigation was ongoing.
There had been extensive efforts to locate Case by law enforcement agencies along the APD 515 corridor from Cherokee County north, but Case had managed to evade capture.
Monday morning, Case, of 199 Twin Ridge Lane in Ellijay, was being held in the Fannin County Detention Center awaiting pickup by Pickens County authorities.