On Saturday, November 2, 2024 15-year-old Tripp Brazeale headed out of his house in Forrest City, Arkansas on a four-wheeler.
After dark and into the early morning hours of Sunday November 3, Tripp, two family members, and a friend were hanging out in a part of the woods called Crow Creek, riding ATVs.
Now it’s mostly illegal to ride four-wheelers on paved roads in Arkansas and in many other places, but out there in the country, it’s a common mode of transportation for teens.
There were police officers nearby that night. Deputy Trey Bynum and Sgt. David Kinney from the St. Francis County Sheriff’s Office were responding to a call regarding with a missing girl and boy from Cross County.
Deputy Bynum wrote in his report that while they were checking out a residence in the woods, they heard ATVs driving around erratically. When they finished up and got back into their vehicles, Sgt. Kinney went to go find them. He was the first one to make contact; he was talking to the people on one of the four-wheelers, basically telling everyone to slow down.
As Deputy Bynum approached, he saw one of the four-wheelers slow down like he was about to stop but then, he said, take off and pass him at “a high rate of speed.”
The driver of that ATV was Tripp Brazeale.
At that point Deputy Bynum started his pursuit, trying to pull Tripp over.
The high speed chase went on up a hill and back down a hill, and that’s when something happened...something that caused Tripp to abruptly stop and jump off his four wheeler at 12:42 AM and run into the woods.
He didn't come back after Deputy Bynum called after him. He fled into the woods and kept running. And then, he disappeared.
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