June 14, 2018 500 AM
FORT DAVIS, PRESIDIO – An apparent run for the border by an unknown suspect or suspects has left two stolen and damaged vehicles in Jeff Davis and Presidio counties.
The chain of events began when a Jeff Davis County sheriff’s deputy received a call concerning a vehicle that was stolen from a Fort Davis gas pump as the owner of the SUV went into the store to pay for the fuel on Sunday, June 3.
The auto theft victim, Jeff Davis County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jerry Walker said, was a Fort Davis man.
When the stolen car call came in, the deputy, however, was responding to a vehicle accident north of Fort Davis on Texas State Highway 17, where a car – which had been abandoned by whomever wrecked it – had been reported stolen from Kermit earlier.
Later that morning, Presidio County Sheriff’s Office Reserve Officer Michelle Castillo was driving from Shafter to Presidio when she noticed the lights of a vehicle off the highway. The vehicle had apparently hit a guardrail and overturned, ending upright.
Castillo went to investigate, saw a car seat and was looking for victims, but no one was to be found. The ignition was on, the motor wasn’t running, but the park lights were on. There were footprints from the vehicle to the highway, and Chief Deputy Joel Nuñez assumes that the person, or persons, in the vehicle hitched a ride to Presidio or Ojinaga.
“Someone thought they were helping an accident victim and gave this person a ride,” he said.
The theft of the two vehicles/hit-and-run incidents are currently under investigation and assumed to be connected, with no suspects named as of Monday.
