Suspect in Ohio woman’s murder captured in W.Va.

PRINCETON, W.Va. (AP) — A man wanted for questioning in the disappearance of an elderly Ohio couple was captured today in southern West Virginia, state police said.

Samuel Littleton was apprehended at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday in the woods behind a Walmart in Princeton. He was flushed out by a police helicopter and caught after a brief foot chase, Capt. J.L. Cahill said.

The car belonging to Richard Russell, 84, and his 85-year-old wife, Gladis, was found abandoned Tuesday in Princeton. State police have said Littleton called a relative Tuesday from a Princeton-area pay phone but was gone by the time police arrived there.

Cahill didn’t mention the couple’s whereabouts at a brief news conference.

Littleton is charged with killing his girlfriend’s 26-year-old daughter. Her body was found last week in his basement in Bellefontaine, the Ohio community where the Russells live. Littleton had bought a home from the Russells in 2009.

The Russells and Littleton, 37, had been missing since Feb. 16, when the Russells’ car was seen parked at an Interstate 75 rest area about 100 miles southwest of their home.

Littleton was sought on a warrant charging murder, felonious assault, abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence in Tiffany Brown’s stabbing death.

His car was found abandoned a couple of miles from the Russells’ home.