A massive Kentucky manhunt for a man who skipped his South Carolina child abuse trial came to an end Friday night after a witness reported a suspicious person walking down Cynthiana Road in Scott County.
Multiple law enforcement agencies had been searching for 43-year-old Nathan Ginter, who U.S. Marshals say was convicted of four counts of unlawful conduct toward a child in South Carolina despite not showing up for his trial. He’d been accused of torturing his child by waterboarding them and using a taser, according to the Marshals.
After the witness called in the tip Friday night, a Scott County Sheriff’s Deputy approached Nathan Ginter and the woman accompanying him, Riley Pearson, on the side of the road.
On the body camera, the deputy can be heard calmly asking the pair who they are and where they were coming from. The sheriff’s office said Ginter lied to the deputy.
In the footage, Ginter can be heard telling the deputy that his name is Michael and that his car had broken down about 10 miles down the road.
Scott County Sheriff Tony Hampton said the deputy knew better. For four minutes, the deputy waited at the side of the road with the pair, Hampton said. Both Ginter and Pearson were arrested without incident.
“He did a really good job of remaining calm and keeping them calm,” Hampton said. “Because in that bag there were two AR-15s and two pistols.”
Along with the guns, investigators found $60,000 in cash and 16 fake IDs.
Hampton said that the Ginter and Pearson were tired and dehydrated after being on the run for several days. Earlier in the week, Georgetown police had recovered Ginter’s dog, truck and trailer.
Hampton told LEX 18 he feels law enforcement did a good job of saturating the area and leaving Ginter and Pearson nowhere to run.
“It was one of those deals where we felt like they hadn't stole a car, hadn't had any vehicles stolen and that's what lead us to believe they were still in the area,” Hampton said.
