Fugitive caught after six-hour chase

After a six-hour chase Thursday through wooded terrain and the Kootenai River, local, state and federal officers apprehended a 25-year-old Washington man wanted for a suspected kidnapping.

Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies arrested Pattrick James Kennedy, 25, on a warrant from Washington Thursday night after running him down in the Kootenai National Forest.

Kennedy was on the Washington Department of Corrections “Most Wanted Offender” list for failing to register as a sex offender and allegedly kidnapping a woman in Idaho. The warrant was issued on May 13.

The U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Border Patrol and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks assisted in the chase and in Kennedy’s arrest.

Deputy Brandon Holzer, the incident commander, said after chasing Kennedy for several hours, law enforcement wasn’t going to let him slip away.

“It was rough — we were out of water; it stunk. But if you want to come into Lincoln County as an unregistered sex offender, we’ll hunt you,” Holzer said Friday.

Holzer said the chase began when a passer-by called in a tip to Idaho law enforcement officials. The caller noticed Kennedy and a woman walking down U.S. 2 between Troy and the Idaho border, and recognized them from a missing persons alert from Idaho.

After law enforcement officials from Boundary County, Idaho contacted Lincoln County, Forest Service agents were the first to find Kennedy and the woman on U.S. 2.

While the woman stayed with the agents, Holzer said, Kennedy took off on foot into the wooded area along the highway.

Sheriff’s deputies soon joined the Forest Service in the manhunt into the woods and Holzer called Border Patrol agents for backup.

“We’re limited on our amount of people we can get to respond, so Border Patrol is an asset we can use for assistance and capturing fugitives,” Holzer said. “That’s what they do is track and hunt people.”

Law enforcement also used a trained dog in the effort, Holzer said. After hours of chasing Kennedy through the rugged terrain, Holzer said law officers started to wear down.

“We just chased that dude and chased that dude through the woods on the Kootenai National Forest. Finally we turned him back down to the river,” Holzer said. “We were down in the gorge. Where we caught him was on the river next to some rock cliffs … Some guys were swimming to get this guy through the water and holding their gear above their heads. He took his shoes off at one point, he was thinking about swimming, but we got him. He got ran down.”

Holzer called Fish, Wildlife & Parks to provide a boat. The spot they finally nabbed Kennedy wasn’t accessible by roads, he said.

Holzer said federal agents took the woman back to Idaho.

As of Monday morning, Kennedy was still in custody at Lincoln County jail.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.