ROCKVILLE, Ind. – A man accused of killing his wife and two stepdaughters was arrested about 600 miles away from home Tuesday after a 30-minute, high-speed chase that began when he left a gas station without paying for fuel, police said.
Chad Cottrell (search) brandished a gun as police chased him on Interstate 94 near Melrose, Minn., then switched to county roads, reaching speeds of 85 to 90 mph before he surrendered, Melrose police Chief John Jensen said.
He said police were unaware at the time that Cottrell, 35, was wanted in the slayings of his wife, Trisha, 29, and her daughters, Brittany Williams, 12, and Victoria Williams, 10.
Parke County Sheriff Charles Bo (search)llinger revealed Tuesday that another child survived inside the home after the attack late Saturday or early Sunday.
Cottrell was being held in the Sterns County (search) jail in central Minnesota. Indiana authorities expected to travel there Wednesday to return him to face three counts of murder, said Sgt. Joe Watts of the Indiana State Police.
The bodies of Cottrell's wife and her daughters were found Monday in his rural western Indiana home near Rockville by the girls' grandparents.
Authorities have not released any details about the surviving child, or how the victims died.
The Cottrell home had been the site of several police calls "for various domestic issues," Watts said. "Nothing really serious, nothing like this."
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