Starke County Sheriff’s deputies arrested two county residents on Wednesday after responding to a residence under the suspicion that a person at the residence had a warrant out for his arrest.
Two officers arrived at 11220 E. 875 N. around 9:50 a.m. One officer covered the rear entrance while the other stayed at the front door, but before long, the officer who had traveled to the rear of the home located a zip-lock baggie containing a light blue substance that he suspected to be organic solvent, an ingredient used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
When police spoke to the homeowner, Ashley Beaver, she said that the woman the officers were looking for had moved out seven months earlier. When the officers told her what they had found behind the home, she said she knew nothing about it and said it may belong to the neighbors. She denied the officers’ request to search the home and requested a search warrant.
Police secured the residence had told the occupants, David Hays and two children, to sit in the living room. Judge Kim Hall soon granted the warrant, and a search was conducted of the residence which turned up a significant amount of precursors, including lithium batteries, pseudoephedrine blister packs, burnt foils, a plate with white residue, a bag of burnt marijuana cigarettes, and paraphernalia pipes, along with rolling papers and several other items used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
Police detained both Beaver and Hays following the search, and proceeded to check local stores. They learned that Beaver had purchased pseudoephedrine 11 times and been blocked three times, and Hays had purchased the same 26 times and been blocked once. The pair was arrested on preliminary possession charges of chemical reagents or precursors, cocaine or a narcotic drug, marijuana, and paraphernalia.
