A horrific crime scene in Nebraska led to a high-speed chase in Wyoming, where state troopers on Friday arrested two teenagers in connection with the stabbing deaths of a woman and her 5-year-old daughter in North Platte, Neb.
One of those arrested was the slain woman's 15-year-old daughter.
North Platte Police Chief Martin Gutschenritter said Alicia Ochoa and Michael Grandon, 18, both of North Platte, are suspects in the theft of a car that belonged to the mother, Lori Solie. He would not confirm whether they are suspects in the slayings.
The investigation that led officers to the teens started a day earlier when police were called to Solie's two-bedroom North Platte apartment around 10 p.m. Thursday.
A man who came to the apartment to complain about a barking dog instead found the door ajar and Solie, 39, lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, Gutschenritter said Friday.
Police found the body of Solie's daughter, Tiara Solie, in a bedroom. Both had numerous stab wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen, Gutschenritter said.
"It was a horrific crime, totally senseless," he said. "A 5-year-old angel taken."
Investigators believe Solie and her daughter died around 7 p.m. Thursday.
He said police had not found a murder weapon, and that he wouldn't speculate on a motive. He wouldn't say whether police still were looking for suspects in the deaths.
A 2006 Ford Mustang that belonged to Solie was missing, and police alerted law enforcement in surrounding states that its occupants were wanted for questioning.
Wyoming troopers spotted the Mustang around 8 a.m. on Interstate 80 west of Rawlins, Wyo. — nearly 400 miles from North Platte.
Speeds up to 115 mph
Here's how the Wyoming Patrol describe the chase:
Grandon, who was driving, accelerated and the trooper gave chase. A trooper 57 miles west of where the chase began laid spike strips to stop the car, but Grandon veered around the strips and raced away at speeds up to 115 miles per hour.
About eight miles down the road, another trooper stopped his patrol car on the side of the road. He was placing stop sticks on the highway when the Mustang approached and Grandon attempted to steer around the sticks.
Grandon lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the back of the parked, unoccupied patrol car. Both teenagers were arrested at gunpoint. Neither suspect was armed, said Wyoming Patrol Sgt. Stephen Townsend. Both were treated at a hospital for minor injuries and taken to the Sweetwater County Detention Facility in Green River, Wyo.
Townsend said he could not say if any weapons were found in the car.
‘There’s a lot of questions we want to ask’
North Platte officers will leave early in the morning for Wyoming, Gutschenritter said.
"There's a lot of questions we want to ask them, and that's why we're headed out there," he said.
There was no evidence of a break-in at Solie's apartment. Investigators believe Solie was divorced and lived at the apartment with both daughters, who had different fathers, Gutschenritter said.
The bodies were taken to Scottsbluff Friday for autopsies.
Telephone messages left for the Lincoln County attorney and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office by The Associated Press were not immediately returned.