FRANKLIN — Teen finally caught after being on the lam for over a year.

Shane Saunders Spurgeon, 19, 2912 Traditions Court, Franklin, is being charged with a level 5 felony of escape.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, an officer with the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department responded to a call of a person escaping from Life Line Youth and Family Services. The officer arrived and found Spurgeon had been sentenced to detention at the facility.

The officer spoke with a Life Line employee, who advised when he discovered Spurgeon missing he contacted the police and went out looking for him. The employee stated that when he drove by a gas station on US 30 and SR 13, he observed Spurgeon walking out of the station and run around a building.

The employee exited his vehicle and chased Spurgeon, who was running toward a gray Ford. The employee recognized the driver as an ex-employee of Life Line. He said he heard Spurgeon yelling for the driver to stop and when it stopped he lost sight of Spurgeon and the vehicle left.

The officer eventually talked with ex-employee and driver of the gray Ford, who admitted she was working at Life Line, but was fired for testing positive for marijuana. She told the officer she was in Pierceton when she received a phone call from Spurgeon wanting to know if she could pick him up at the gas station. She knew Spurgeon was an inmate at the facility.

The woman admitted to pulling up to the gas station and Spurgeon yelling at her to stop, which she did. She stated that Spurgeon entered her vehicle and they left the area. The woman told the officer she had taken Spurgeon north on SR 13, approximately 1 1/2 miles, and he departed from her vehicle. She admitted to having a relationship with Spurgeon that was not acceptable to her position as a youth treatment specialist at Life Line.

Officers used a K-9 to do an outer air search of the woman’s vehicle and the canine alerted. When officers searched the vehicle, they found three plastic bags the officer identified to be marijuana and weighing less than 4 grams.

Love letters to the woman from Spurgeon were also found in the vehicle, where he stated he loved her and could not live without her. There was also a letter from the woman to Spurgeon stating she loved him, too.

Spurgeon was booked into Kosciusko County Jail on Aug. 15 and is being held on a $10,250 surety and cash bond.