Woman found dead in Ormond car crash was being sought in double Lake County homicide
A woman found dead in a car after it crashed in a parking lot in Ormond Beach on Friday and her passenger, who ran from the vehicle, were being sought in a double homicide in Lake County, authorities said on Monday.
The woman, who was driving the crashed car, was identified as Samantha H. Butler, 29, of Alabama. Roger M. Gilbert, 35, also of Alabama, was caught after he was found hiding inside a Dollar Tree store at 274 W. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach police said.
Ormond Beach police said that Butler did not die of injuries related to the crash. A cause of death has not been confirmed, said Ormond Beach Police Capt. Chris Roos.
More recent killings:
Police: Woman shot, killed in Daytona Beach in possible love triangle
Prosecutors: No charges against man who shot and killed Volusia library assistant
Roos said Butler and Gilbert are "people of interest" in a double homicide that occurred the previous day in Lake County, Florida.
Callers to 9-1-1 in Lake County gave detectives enough information to connect Butler and Gilbert to shooting deaths that occurred at a Pennsylvania Road home in Altoona, Lake County Sheriff's Lt. John Herrell said Monday.
Lake County deputies responded to the Altoona home at 9 p.m. after getting reports of two people shot, Herrell said.
Inside the home, deputies found David Thomas Mikell, 34, of Umatilla, and Shane Eugene Clements, 41, of Altoona, shot to death, Herrell said.
With the information gathered on Butler and Gilbert, the Lake County Sheriff's Office issued an area-wide bulletin letting local law enforcement agencies know that they were looking for them, Herrell said.
"Ormond Beach police encountered them by accident and not because of the bulletin," Herrell said. "I believe they were responding to some other type of call on Friday."
That call, according to Ormond Beach police, was in reference to a vehicle seen with a bullet hole in it.
The vehicle was spotted at 11:42 a.m. and Ormond Beach police conducted a traffic stop. Before an officer could make contact with the occupants of the car, it sped off, police said.
Shortly after, the car crashed in the parking lot of KFC at 294 West Granada Blvd. A man, later identified as Gilbert, ran from the car and tried to hide inside the Dollar Tree but was located and taken into custody, Ormond Beach police said.
According to an Ormond Beach police arrest report, Gilbert had a firearm in his front waistband. The gun was reported stolen in Alabama, police said.
Herrell said Monday that detectives are still putting evidence together and interviewing people to determine the motive behind the double homicide.
"We are working on figuring out how Butler and Gilbert ended up at that home in Altoona from Alabama in the first place," Herrell said.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Alabama woman sought for double Florida homicide found dead in crashed car
