BICKNELL – A Knox County couple is facing charges related to lying to police and submitting false information in an attempt to lure law-enforcement away from a search for a wanted person
Monday around 8:00 p.m., Knox County Sheriff’s deputies received a tip that a wanted suspect, Samantha Richards, was at a house on Illinois Street in Bicknell.
Upon arrival, deputies spoke with her husband, Ryan Richards, who told them that Samantha was not at the residence. Richards refused to let deputies look inside the house. There were three separate 911 hang-up calls while deputies were on the scene that were traced back to the residence.
The female caller, later determined to be Samantha, stated her husband was chasing her at a Bruceville gas station. Deputies responded to the station, and witnesses said there had been no domestic dispute at the gas station. The 911 caller made false claims about a domestic dispute to draw police away from the residence. Deputies applied for a search warrant for the residence and property.
Samantha Richards was in a vehicle, hiding in the back seat under clothes in trash bags. She was transported to the Knox County Jail on local felony warrants and two new local charges of falsely informing, a Class A misdemeanor, and interfering with the 911 emergency line, a Class A misdemeanor.
Ryan Richards was also arrested and transported to the Knox County Jail for false informing, aiding and abetting, and obstruction of justice.
