A trucker wanted in a Tennessee murder was arrested in Salt Lake City after his rig was located through his company's electronic tracking system.
Detectives Mike Welch and Jim Prior arrested Glenn Brownlee, 34, Wednesday after they got a call from the Tri-State Motor Transit Co., of Joplin, Mo.The company's director of safety, Jeff Cooney, told detectives that one of his truckers, wanted for a Tennessee murder, was in Salt Lake City.
Brownlee's truck is equipped with an electronic transponder that continuously emits a signal to a satellite. The signal is then sent back down so the trucking company can always monitor the semi.
Cooney faxed the detectives a snap showing where the truck was idling. Welch and Prior arrested Brownlee without incident.
"He knew that there was a transponder located in the truck. He also knew there was an indictment coming," Welch said.
Brownlee was booked into Salt Lake County jail on a fugitive warrant. He is accused of an ambush murder Aug. 19 in Pickett County, Tenn.
He and Bethel Ray Hill Jr. were involved in a property dispute with Steven Richard Kearns, said Robert Reeves, deputy director for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations.
That night, two men waited to ambush Kearns on Cover Creek Road. Instead, a Muncie, Ind., couple in a truck similar in make and color to Kearns' truck drove down the remote rural road.
The assailants opened fire, killing the driver, Fred Koger. His wife, Linda, was injured.
On Dec. 5, Tennessee authorities charged both men with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Hill was arrested that day in Tennessee.