On June 13^th, 2011, deputies stopped a vehicle in the area of Jamesway Drive and Marion Mt. Gilead Road. The vehicle stopped was involved in a reckless operation complaint earlier in the evening and deputies later located the vehicle and stopped it for not having a visible front license plate and for having an excessively loud exhaust. The driver of the vehicle was 20 year old Cody S. Townsend of 228 ½ Lincoln Avenue, Mt. Gilead. Townsend was issued a citation for fictitious plates for having license plates of another person’s vehicle on his car.

Deputies indentified the lone occupant of Townsend’s vehicle as 27 year old Stephen Schneider of 648 Mayfield Drive, Marion. When Schneider’s information was checked a traffic warrant out of Florida was attached to his record, but the warrant appeared to be a non-qualifying warrant for Ohio. A few minutes later, the Florida Highway Patrol, advised that the warrant was confirmed for Schneider, was a qualifying warrant in Ohio and that they would extradite Schneider to Florida. The Florida Highway Patrol indicated that the warrant against Schneider was dated June 7, 2011and the charge was for vehicular homicide.

Schneider was placed under arrest for the Florida warrant. Schneider was transported to the Marion multi-county jail, where he is awaiting extradition to Florida.

The Florida State Highway Patrol accident report indicates that on April 7, 2011 Schneider was driving north on I-95 in Miami when it made sudden lane changes in an attempt to get to an exit that was four lanes away. Schneider struck a vehicle that was traveling north in the left center lane, causing the vehicle to lose control and strike a concrete barrier wall. The driver of the struck vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene.

LIMA -- A Marion County deputy spotted a missing Allen County man from the air when the sheriff's office flight team was called out to help in the search two weeks ago.

Allen County Sheriff Sam Crish said the 94-year-old man was doing fine after being out in a severe thunderstorm during the 27 hours he was missing.

He had spoken to the man's family, and medically, he was doing OK.

"I was surprised he survived the storm, due to his age and the conditions of the storm," Crish said.

When putting together a search team after the man was reported missing on a Monday after not coming back after going out to get the mail in the morning, Crish called on Marion County Sheriff Tim Bailey for assistance.

He knew Bailey from working with the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association and that Marion County would be willing to offer assistance if it could.

Bailey and Deputy John Butterworth went to help, but got chased out by the storms that day, Bailey said.

"They put together a search team and asked us to come over and fly support," he said.

Marion County went back to Lima on Tuesday, picked up an Allen County deputy at the airport, and took off.

"Within 15 minutes, we spotted him. John spotted him," Bailey said.

They radioed the information to the teams on the ground, who were able to find the man still alive.

"We thought after 27 hours, the unfortunate may have happened," he said.

On the ground, Crish had a search team of volunteer firefighters, his special deputies, full-time deputies and parks department canvassing the area, and even as Butterworth spotted the man from overhead, there were other volunteers on their way to the area to help however they could.

The response from everyone to help in the search was absolutely positive, Crish said.

 THIS A PARTIAL ARTICLE REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION BY THE MARION STAR. CLICK HERE FOR THE WHOLE STORY.