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BILL WEST/ Star Beacon
NARCOTICS TASK Force members collect material Thursday used for a working
methamphetamine lab near Hayes Road in Dorset Township.
By MARK TUSCANO
Staff Writer
mtuscano@starbeacon.com
DORSET — A Thursday morning manhunt drew law-enforcement agencies from as
far away as Meadville, Pa., and Geauga County to a rural wooded area along
Hayes Road, south of Marrian Road, in Dorset Township.
The suspect in the search, 27-year-old Dennis L. Brainard, is wanted on four
felony warrants in Ashtabula County and should be considered armed and
dangerous. He is suspected in connection with a large methamphetamine
laboratory. Details of the search, and events leading to the search, are
still sketchy. The suspect was still at large Thursday night.
Shetler asks that anyone having information as to the whereabouts of
Brainard should call the Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department (440
576–0055). Brainard has outstanding warrants for charges of possessing
firearms under a disability, illegal manufacture of drugs, improper handling
of a firearm in a motor vehicle and failure to appear.
Brainard, who has a criminal history, was spotted in a black pickup truck
about 8:30 a.m. He was parked in a driveway on Hayes Road at what appears to
have been at one time a home site. When Brainard became aware of officers
closing in, he fled into the woods. He is believed to be carrying a
revolver.
Sgt. Terry Moisio Jr. of the Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department took
command of the subsequent area search and manhunt. In a clearing, there were
two travel trailers parked at the woods’ edge, behind the pickup truck.
Officers determined there was an active methamphetamine laboratory at the
site and they located suspected methamphetamines. At least 15 squad cars
arrived at the scene before deputies blocked a section of Hayes Road between
Marrian Road to the north, and Ayers Road in Cherry Valley, to the south.
Pennsylvania State troopers, including a helicopter search team, responded
to the search, as well as SWAT team members from the Andover and Ashtabula
police departments and personnel from Trumbull-Ashtabula-Geauga (TAG) drug
task force, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), hazardous material
specialists and a number of Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department deputies.
About a dozen officers from two departments started a foot pursuit into the
surrounding woods.
Brainard is described as being 5-foot 6-inches tall, wearing a camouflage
jacket, a ball cap and brown pants. The black Chevrolet pickup truck
recently had been painted. This is not the first time Brainard has eluded
law-enforcement authorities. Moisio said the sheriff’s department has been
looking for him for several weeks. Search teams were recalled to the
clearing shortly after noon. Their search through the dense woods was guided
by radio instructions from Moisio and the helicopter crew. Ashtabula County
sheriff’s deputy chief Howard Shetler said TAG and hazardous material
cleanup teams re-entered the site in the afternoon after the unsuccessful
search was called off.
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