Woman featured in a BOLO put out on social media by Ponchatoula Police Department was located Tuesday (August 30) morning in St. Tammany Parish.
Shortly after 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, while driving in the area, a St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s patrol sergeant observed a dark blue Nissan Frontier pickup, flipped over in the wood line near the intersection of Louisiana Highway 1088 and Louisiana Highway 36. When he stopped to offer assistance and to check on the driver, the sergeant was confronted by a distraught woman wielding a knife and threatening to kill herself. He called for backup, and more deputies responded to the scene.
The woman stabbed herself multiple times before the deputies were able to use non-lethal means to subdue her. They removed the knife from her possession and took her into custody. She was transported by emergency medical personnel to a local hospital.
She has since be identified as Tabitha Mielke (DOB 6/19/1990) of Lacombe. Deputies on the scene discovered that she matched the description of a woman wanted for attacking a convenience store clerk in Ponchatoula.
Ponchatoula Police were contacted and have obtained warrants for Mielke’s arrest. Upon her release from the hospital, Mielke will be booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center as a fugitive on those warrants.
Louisiana State Police is handling the crash.
“I am thankful to our patrol sergeant who observed the crashed truck and stopped, possibly saving this woman from taking her own life or harming another person,” Sheriff Randy Smith said. “I am also pleased that we were able to assist Ponchatoula Police in locating the individual wanted after she violently attacked and injured someone in their jurisdiction.”