Police suspect Missouri bandits hit Oak Ridge, stole car before escapade to Alabama, Florida

A man and woman from Joplin, Missouri, suspected in robberies and abductions across the southeast may have made a pit stop in Oak Ridge before heading to Alabama.

Authorities had linked Blake Fitzgerald and Brittany Nicole Harper, both 30, to a series of crimes in Alabama and Georgia, saying the offenses fit a similar pattern: People are robbed, kidnapped and let go unharmed, usually after a vehicle is stolen.

The search for the couple ended Friday with Fitzgerald dead and Harper wounded, after authorities say they chased the pair across the highway and through a rural neighborhood and exchanged gunfire with them in Florida’s Panhandle.

In Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, authorities said they spotted Fitzgerald and Harper on Jan. 28 in a black Cadillac reported stolen in Webb City, Missouri, according to Cape Girardeau Sheriff’s Department public information officer David James. Perry County sheriff’s deputies joined the chase south through the county, but the couple eluded capture near the Cape Girardeau County border and eventually ended in the 1300 block of Route D in Oak Ridge, James said.

The couple is suspected to have broken into an unoccupied residence, found the keys to a 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer in the garage and then exchanged one vehicle for the other, James said. The unsuspecting residents returned home at 6 p.m. to find a broken house window and an unfamiliar car in their garage, James said.

The Trailblazer was found parked in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, next to the site of another car theft, James said. Alabama authorities have processed the vehicle for evidence, but James said he did not know whether the local residents had retrieved it.

James said reports will be filed with Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney, recommending charges against Harper.

After the chase and shootout in Florida, Harper was at a hospital under armed guard with a wounded leg, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said at a news conference. She faces charges including home invasion, robbery, false imprisonment and grand theft auto, but no court appearances are scheduled, Morgan said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address:

1300 block of Route D, Oak Ridge, Mo.