Authorities arrest Alabama man wanted in connection with multiple homicides

(AP) — An Alabama man wanted in connection with homicides in Oklahoma was apprehended Thursday in Arkansas after a search that spanned multiple southern states, Arkansas State Police said.

Stacy Lee Drake, 50, was taken into custody around 10 a.m. in a wooded area in Morrilton, Arkansas, state police said. He was taken into custody “without incident,” the agency said in a brief statement.

Drake is wanted in connection with homicides and carjackings in Oklahoma, Arkansas State Police said. They said he’s also wanted on other felony warrants from multiple jurisdictions on charges including aggravated robbery, carjacking, and murder.

A man and a woman were found dead inside a business near Gans, Oklahoma, an eastern Oklahoma town near the Arkansas state line, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said. Both sustained injuries consistent with homicide and the Oklahoma agency said Drake is a person of interest in the killings.

Arkansas authorities initially said Drake was wanted in three Oklahoma homicides, but Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Hunter McKee said Thursday that Drake has been connected only to the two in the Gans area.

“We’re still investigating what else the suspect might have been involved in,” McKee said, but that Drake was not wanted for any other Oklahoma slayings.

The bodies of the two victims were sent to the state medical examiner for identification and to determine the causes of their deaths, the OSBI said.

Drake’s last known address was in Birmingham, Alabama. He was being held Thursday in the Conway County Detention Center in Arkansas.