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MISSOULA, Montana — A man wanted in connection with a 12-year-old murder in Michigan escaped over the weekend and was recaptured by police on Monday.
Chadwick Shane Mobley, 42, who is wanted in Michigan for the 2011 shooting death of 20-year-old Andrea Eilber, escaped from custody on Sunday while being transported through Montana.
Mobley was charged in Michigan with first-degree premeditated murder after DNA collected in Utah matched with previously unknown DNA collected at the Michigan crime scene.
The Sanders County Sheriff's Office in Montana announced Monday afternoon Mobley was arrested at 6:08 p.m. in the town of Plains where he had escaped on Sunday. Officials said citizens "saw and made the call" that Mobley was in the area, and he was taken into custody by the county sheriff and deputies, as well as a Plains police officer.
"Shout (out) to the dispatchers for all your hard work taking tip calls, not to mention the day he escaped and the day he was back in custody. You are our lifeline," the sheriff's office said in a social media post. "Great work by all, together we made a difference! Not just for our community, but for the victims of the crimes he is suspected of, and being charged with."
After investigators collected a DNA sample from Mobley in Utah on June 7, he allegedly fled the area. The Utah Department of Public Safety made a request to the public on June 13 to be on the lookout for Mobley. Then on June 28, he was arrested in Libby, Montana, in the northwestern part of the state near the Idaho border.
But about 10 a.m. Sunday, Mobley was being transported through Sanders County, Montana, when he escaped near Plains.
"The transport was being conducted by a contracted transport company from Lincoln County to another destination not by any Lincoln County Sheriff's Office staff! The transport was set up by the U.S. marshals," the Sanders County Sheriff's Office posted on its Facebook page.
"Lincoln County held the man until the agency with the warrant set up transport. Neither Lincoln or Sanders County is responsible for the escape. The private transport is," the sheriff's office said.
The sheriff's office had asked all residents in the surrounding area to lock their doors.
"Please be advised that Chadwick Shane Mobley has escaped the custody of his transport at Plains Town Pump and is still on the run. Mobley was able to remove his handcuffs as well as ankle shackles and run," the sheriff's office said. "Please lock your homes, garages and vehicles and call 911 if you see anything suspicious.
"We are asking anyone in the vicinity of Plains Town Pump and surrounding areas, please check your Ring cameras, security cameras, at your businesses and your residences between about 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. We are looking for any information that would give us a direction of travel or anything about Chadwick Shane Mobley's escape," the office stated in another post. "Please lock up your vehicles and remove keys from inside them. Lock up outbuildings, property entry gates if possible or you have them. Keep your house locked up even while you're inside it. If you have guns in your vehicles remove them and store them with you inside your residence. ... Do not open your door to cries for help until you can put eyes on the person (from within the home) to know if it is safe.
"In these situations there are a lot of moving parts and it can't be done immediately. Please know that deputies and other officers from various agencies are out looking still. In these situations sometimes these people find a place to hunker down (hide out) until dark and start moving again," the sheriff's office stated. "Mobley is dangerous and should not be approached, if you see him call 911."
In 2011, Eilber was found shot to death in Lapeer County, Michigan, in an area about 30 minutes outside of Flint. Kenneth Grondin, then 19, Eilber's boyfriend, was arrested and charged with murder.
Grondin was convicted in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But in 2018, he "was granted an appeal based on faulty language on the jury verdict instruction form. He was subsequently released from prison and a new trial was ordered," according to court documents.
Since then, a cigarette butt found at the crime scene was tested for DNA and later matched to Mobley.
Grondin's defense attorney, Brian Legghio, told KSL.com that his client "is absolutely innocent of this wrongful charge" which he is now seeking to have dismissed.
