High-speed chase suspect at large

Published 9:25 am Tuesday, August 2, 2011

AUSTIN — Police are still searching for one suspect in a 100 mph chase and Walmart theft stemming from early Saturday morning.

Natasha Duellman, 34, of Plainview, is suspected to have been involved in the theft. Beth Marie Hansen, 25, of Rochester, was arrested as a result of the chase and is being held in the Mower County jail.

Austin police received a report of two women leaving Walmart without paying for several electronics items, including a flat-screen television, around 3:30 a.m. Saturday. An officer heading west on Interstate 90 spotted the women’s vehicle and pursued them.

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Officers used lights and sirens in an attempt to stop the vehicle at mile marker 172, but the car continued to Exit 166, which is County Road 46. The SUV eventually hit stop sticks that were laid on the road by a Mower County sheriff’s deputy. The sticks punctured the right, front tire of the womens’ vehicle, but it continued down the 2700 block of West Oakland Avenue at 80 mph.

The chase went through town, with the women eventually driving over a curb and into a large field near Fourth Street SE.

The women ran from the vehicle and into the woods, where officers lost sight of who they believe to be Duellman.

Hansen was found in a grove of trees and was bit by the police K-9 before being arrested. As she was being led from the field, she allegedly spit in the officer’s face.

Austin Police Chief Brian Krueger said Duellman is a white female who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 140 pounds.