MANISTEE COUNTY, MICH. (WWJ) An MSP K9 named Ox is hailed a hero for helping his handler track down a suspect in a hit-and-run of a woman on her bicycle in northern Michigan.
Michigan State Police were called to the scene of a crash involving a car and a bicyclist in Springdale Township on Friday around 3:45 p.m. When troopers arrived, they talked with a Traverse City woman, 41, who claimed to be the driver who struck the bicyclist. She later admitted she was the passenger. Troopers learned a Benzonia woman, 35, was the actual driver of the car, who ran away from the scene of the crash.
The driver had a warrant out for her arrest. Troopers found methamphetamine and a stun gun in her car, State Police said.
State Police called in an MSP Canine Team, Trooper Unterbrink and K9 Ox, and established a perimeter. Ox and Trooper Unterbrink tracked the suspect “through approximately five miles of swamp and thick forest.” Officers arrested her when she exited the forest onto a roadway. She is currently lodged in the Manistee County Jail.
The bicyclist, 73 of Thompsonville, was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.