Left: Gavin Thompson (Lancaster County Department of Corrections). Right: Dorinda Segebrecht (Iowa County Sheriff”s Office).
A Wisconsin man allegedly took police on a wrong-way highway chase while in a car connected to a missing person case — and that missing person may have been the dead body found in the car.
Gavin Thompson, 23, is currently in custody at the Lancaster County Jail in Nebraska. Thompson was arrested after he allegedly crossed state lines in a car that reportedly belonged to 67-year-old Dorinda Segebrecht, who was reported missing in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, on Monday. According to the Nebraska State Patrol, the agency received an alert from the neighboring Iowa County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin that Segebrecht’s black Hyundai Kona may have been traveling westbound in Nebraska.
When state troopers spotted the car at around 1:50 a.m. on Wednesday, the driver of the car did not match the description of its owner. Troopers attempted to pull the vehicle over, but the driver — eventually identified as Thompson, also a Dodgeville resident — apparently fled instead.
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According to the Nebraska State Patrol, Thompson had allegedly tried to exit Interstate 80 to evade police. After he fled, he got back on the interstate’s eastbound lane, headed in the wrong direction inside of a construction zone, officials say.
Thompson then “failed to navigate the lane shift, drove into the median, and crashed into a creek.” He fled on foot, and police approached the car. Authorities say that in the back seat was the dead body of a woman who matched Segebrecht’s description. While Nebraska officials have not officially confirmed the identity of the body, they stated, “It was clear that the woman had died before the crash.”
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State troopers summoned several local law enforcement agencies, including the SWAT team. Using “police service dogs, drones, and the NSP helicopter,” a deputy with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office found Thompson about 4 miles away from the crash site. He was arrested without incident.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Iowa County Sheriff Michael Peterson and Dodgeville Police Department Police Chief Brandon Wilhelm both said that there was no known relationship between Thompson and Segebrecht. Wilhelm called the alleged crime a “random act of violence.”
Peterson stated, “We’ve lost a beloved member of our county under tragic and senseless circumstances.”
Thompson is currently being held without bond at Nebraska’s Lancaster County Jail after being charged with reckless driving and avoiding arrest. He is expected to be extradited to Wisconsin’s Iowa County.
