A 35-year-old man wanted in connection with a probation violation has been arrested after being found in a deceased Paradise resident’s vehicle, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday.
The incident began Sunday night, when deputies conducted a records check on a car and discovered the registration hadn’t been renewed in four years, according to a post on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
Deputies were going to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle, but before they could, Stephen Miller of Paradise ran from the passenger side, the post stated.
Miller was being sought in Butte County for violating his probation; he had cut off his ankle monitor, authorities said.
Deputies tracked him to Cedar Glen Lodge in Tahoe Vista, and he was arrested Monday morning.
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote in the post, which accompanied video of the handcuffed suspect being escorted by deputies to an awaiting patrol SUV.
Miller is being held without bail at the Auburn Jail, inmate records showed.
It was not immediately clear when the car was allegedly taken, or when its owner died.
The town of Paradise was devastated by the recent Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire ever recorded in California. The fire killed at least 85 people, destroyed nearly 14,000 homes and scorched more than 153,000 acres, according to the final update on Inciweb.
