Koehlhoeffer captured in Bettendorf

IOWA CITY (AP) ? Anthony Koehlhoeffer, the 20-year-old Fairfield man who escaped from custody late Tuesday was arrested about 6 p.m. Wednesday in Bettendorf, near the Iowa-Illinois border.

A jail inmate with a history of fleeing custody escaped from an Iowa City hospital and eluded authorities during a more than 18-hour crime spree that police say included multiple carjackings and subsequent crashes.

Koehlhoeffer was arrested after crashing one of several vehicles he?s believed to have stolen while on the lam.

Koehlhoeffer, who had been held on charges stemming from two robberies ? the Oct. 3 robbery and burglary of the McDonald?s Restaurant in Fairfield and the Oct. 29 robbery of Pilot Grove Savings Bank in Packwood ? escaped about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday while receiving court-ordered treatment at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. Police said he then assaulted a female student in a residence hall parking lot and stole her car. The student was not seriously injured.

About 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, a man believed to be Koehlhoeffer, dressed in the hospital-issued gown, flip-flops and a hooded sweat shirt, committed a second carjacking at an Iowa City convenience store, said police spokeswoman Sgt. Denise Brotherton.

Brotherton said the stolen green Buick crashed into another vehicle, and the man fled through the snow in 10-degree weather. No one was injured.

Police said a woman reported at 9:15 a.m. that she was carjacked and forced to drive the man 55 miles east to Bettendorf. He fled on foot again and left the woman physically unharmed in her vehicle, Brotherton said.

Hours later, Koehlhoeffer crashed a vehicle in Bettendorf that he is accused of carjacking in nearby Davenport, said Bettendorf police spokeswoman Lauran Haldeman.

?He tried to flee, and he flipped the car,? said Haldeman, who didn?t know if Koehlhoeffer was injured, but said he was taken to Genesis Medical Center-East in Davenport.

For the complete article, see the Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010, printed edition of The Fairfield Ledger.