The Latest: Wife reports assault by parolee in RV chase
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on a paroled sex offender who remains missing after leading police on a chase in a motor home (all times local):
12:35 p.m.
Investigators are releasing more details about a paroled sex offender who remains missing after he led them on an hours-long chase in a motor home with his two young children inside.
Capt. Darren Harris with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says a customer at a Starbucks in Santa Clarita called police Tuesday morning to report a woman had been threatened by her husband and needed help.
Harris says the customer reported the woman was panhandling and said her husband was forcing her to try to get some money. She said that her husband was back at home with a gun, apparently referring to the couple’s motor home.
A police chase ensued for more than three hours when deputies tried to talk with the woman’s husband, Stephen Houk.
Harris says Houk’s wife then told deputies that Houk had assaulted her earlier that morning and later loaded a gun and pointed it at her.
He says preliminary information indicates the couple recently traveled to California from Oregon, where Houk has been convicted of felony sodomy.
___
9:25 a.m.
Authorities say a paroled sex offender who remains missing after he led them on an hours-long chase in a motor home with his two young children inside should be considered “armed and dangerous.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday that a manhunt is underway for 46-year-old Stephen Houk.
Houk is a registered sex offender on parole for a sex crime in Oregon.
Detectives tried to arrest Houk on Tuesday after the sheriff’s department says he had a fight with his wife. That led to a chase in Hollywood that lasted for hours before it ended 100 miles (161 kilometers) away in an almond orchard north of Bakersfield.
Houk escaped capture. His children were found safe inside the RV and reunited with their mother.
___
9:20 p.m.
Authorities are looking for a paroled sex offender they say led them on a 100-mile chase from Los Angeles in a motor home with his two young children inside before escaping.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says detectives on Tuesday tried to arrest a 46-year-old Oregon man who had a fight with his wife and was wanted for child abduction and weapons violations.
That led to a chase into Hollywood and then north by freeway with more than a dozen CHP patrol cars following the motor home.
Hours later, the RV finally stopped in an orchard north of Bakersfield.
His children, a 3-year-old boy and an 11-month-old girl, were found safe but Houk wasn’t in the motor home.
Authorities say the man, Stephen Houk, is believed to be armed.
