CEDAR CITY — A 26-year-old Illinois woman was arrested on Friday evening after leading police on a 60-mile high-speed chase along Interstate 15 in Southern Utah.
Ananasia Moshea Ivory was booked into Beaver County Jail on suspicion of failing to respond to an officer’s signal to stop, a third-degree felony, along with misdemeanor counts of reckless driving, possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia.
According to the probable cause statement filed in support of Ivory’s arrest, the incident began at about 6:50 p.m. when a Utah Highway Patrol trooper in Iron County measured on his radar a black Honda Accord traveling northbound at 119 mph.
Because that trooper was en route to an unrelated crash and unable to follow the Honda, he called another trooper who was near the Iron-Beaver county line and advised him to be on the lookout for the suspect vehicle.
“I made my way to mile marker 102 on I-15, set up in the median, and began to look for the suspect vehicle,” the second trooper wrote, adding, “I observed the suspect vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed and locked its speed at 113 mph.”
The second trooper then activated his overhead emergency lights and sirens in an attempt to get the Honda driver to pull over.
Although the driver initially did slow down and move over to the right lane, she allegedly then moved back into the left lane and accelerated.
The ensuing chase spanned approximately 60 miles, through Beaver County and into Millard County before officers were able to perform a felony stop near mile marker 165. Speeds during the pursuit ranged from 65 mph to 120 mph, the arresting trooper wrote in the affidavit.
After the stop was conducted at approximately 7:40 p.m., the driver was reportedly taken into custody without further incident.
Two agents from Utah State Bureau of Investigation arrived on the scene and, after successfully applying for a search warrant, allegedly found an unspecified quantity of marijuana in the vehicle, along with drug paraphernalia.
Ivory, who is listed as being from Park Forest, Illinois, is being held in Beaver County Jail as she awaits her initial court appearance.
This report is based on preliminary statements from court documents or law enforcement officials and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.