MARSHALL COUNTY, MS (abc24.com) - Two months after a burglar ran from them, Marshall County investigators are still working hard to catch him. Cops say Jerome Totten has a history of breaking the law and running from police.
There are multiple warrants for his arrest. Totten's also wanted for questioning in about a dozen Mississippi church burglaries.
He's been running since April. Totten's family says he's addicted to drugs, and investigators think his addiction is why he commits crimes. With all his problems, cops say one thing Totten does very well is run. Every time they get close, he's managed to escape into the woods.
"Unfortunately it is taking us longer than we'd anticipated," says Major Kelly McMillen. "We don't give up."
McMillen has led several searches for Jerome Totten. The sheriff's department first tried arresting the burglar in April, but Totten escaped into Mississippi's backwoods...twice.
Investigators say Totten has been running ever since. "He's been in different states, in Tennessee. We even heard information he'd been to Florida."
"He must be out-smarting the police; they can't catch him, all those people," Burt Totten, Jerome's uncle, told abc24.com in April.
McMillen says it's only a matter of time, and that the department is playing it smart, wanting to avoid anymore wild goose chases.
"We can't go to an area with two or three people and attempt to catch somebody that stays on run all the time," McMillen explains. "You're fighting odds. He knows the area whether daylight or dark."
Deputies say Totten is a prime suspect in more than a dozen church burglaries. They want to question him on those, and serve warrants for others.
"[Our cases] are pretty strong. Also neighboring Tate County has cases against him," McMillen says. "We'll keep at it until the right timing comes with the right number of people. We'll get him detained eventually."
No other churches have been broken into since Totten went missing. The department says that's a big relief.
They're assigning extra patrols throughout the county to arrest him and asking anyone with information on Totten's whereabouts to call CrimeStoppers.
