Polk Sheriff Arrests Couple On The Lam For 15 Years

WINTER HAVEN, FL -- The Polk County Sheriff's Office arrested a man and woman who fled drug and weapons charges in Indiana and have been hiding out in Florida for 15 years.

The fugitives, 52-year-old Derrick Holman and 48-year-old Michele Cox, were arrested in Indiana in June 2003 for drug possession and weapons charges. They subsequently bonded out of jail and fled before their case went to court.

According to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, Holman and Cox obtained Tennessee driver’s licenses under the names Eric Brewer and Mechele Green, using personal information stolen from the real Brewer and Green.

Their false identities were discovered when the real Eric Brewer of Indiana notified his local law enforcement agency that a credit report showed him owning a property in Polk County that he never purchased.

Polk County Sheriff's Office detectives began investigating and discovered that Holman, Cox, Holman’s 49-year-old brother Mark and 32-year-old

Nathan Olsen were working together to conceal the real identities of the fugitives.

"The two fugitives from justice assumed new identities here in Florida to avoid capture,” Judd said. “In the end, they wound up with a lot of felonies, and a paid one-way ticket back to Indiana."

Cox and Holman are charged with aggravated white-collar crime of $50,000 or more, use of the ID of another without consent, obtaining property by fraud, forgery, filing false documents for property and making a false statement on motor vehicle insurance.

Mark Holman is charged with obtaining property by fraud and forging a public record and Olsen is charged with obtaining property by fraud and filing a false document against property.

The State of Indiana plans to extradite Holman and Cox from Florida to face the 2003 Indiana charges including failure to appear, dealing in cocaine, possession of a firearm by a serious felon, possession of marijuana over 30 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Image via Polk County Sheriff's Office