The four-day manhunt for a slaying suspect in north Arkansas ended Thursday when Matthew J. Bolen surrendered to authorities.
Boone County Sheriff Mike Moore said the search for Bolen had intensified over the previous two days, as bloodhounds and an Arkansas State Police helicopter were brought in to help the 20 officers who had been scouring woods north of Batavia since Sunday.
"I think that added to the pressure he was feeling," Moore said. "The dogs hit a trail and worked hard. I'm sure he was on those paths, but evidently they were cold trails."
Bolen, 36, called a sheriff's office investigator Thursday asking if he could turn himself in, Moore said. Bolen was apprehended about 12:30 p.m. at his father's residence north of Batavia.
Moore said he didn't know if Bolen had been sleeping in the woods or if someone had provided him shelter at night. The search was suspended each night and resumed the following morning.
Police had searched for Bolen since Sunday, when his estranged wife, Heaven Lee Bolen, 26, was found with a gunshot wound in her head in front of her home in Harrison. She died Monday at a Springfield, Mo., hospital.
Heaven Bolen's sport utility vehicle was found Sunday abandoned on Arkansas 392 north of Batavia, about 10 miles from her home and less than a mile from Matthew Bolen's father's house, Moore said. The pink words "Heaven's Day Care" had been scraped out of the back window of the Chevrolet Equinox, Moore said.
On Tuesday, as police followed leads, the manhunt expanded beyond Boone County to include Carroll, Newton and Madison counties. But investigators continued to concentrate the search on the woods north of Batavia, where Heaven Bolen's vehicle was found.
By Wednesday, the Arkansas State Police, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the U.S. Marshals Service and officers with the 14th Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force had joined the search, Moore said.
Moore said Bolen was arrested without incident, handcuffed and transported to the Harrison Police Department to be interviewed. Formal charges have yet to be filed against him.
The hunt began after police received a telephone call about the shooting at 1:19 p.m. Sunday, Harrison Police Chief Paul Woodruff said.
Matthew Bolen borrowed a 9mm pistol from a friend Saturday and told people a day later that he had shot his wife, the police chief said.
Moore said Bolen's father gave investigators a 9mm pistol he had gotten from his son.
"It appears that it's going to be the weapon that he used," said Moore, referring to Sunday's homicide.
Matthew Bolen's 2003 Chevrolet Silverado pickup was found at Hotel Seville, two blocks from Heaven Bolen's residence.
Woodruff said Matthew Bolen parked the truck at the hotel, walked to his wife's house, shot her and left in her Equinox.
The police chief said Matthew and Heaven Bolen had two children, an 8-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy.
"From the information we're getting, Mr. Bolen had visitation with them and had taken them to his sister's house and dropped them off prior to the shooting," Woodruff said.
Matthew Bolen was employed at Wabash Wood Products in Harrison, which manufactures laminated oak floors for tractor-trailers.
Heaven Bolen ran a day care business. According to her Facebook page, Heaven Bolen was originally from Clyde, Ohio.
Metro on 01/27/2017
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