Half-naked Hilton Head fugitive ‘crawled out of the woods’ to steal woman’s car, cops say
This wasn’t your typical Hilton Head nature walk: A fugitive covered in dirt and wearing only underwear reportedly crawled out of the woods along a Spanish Wells street before climbing inside a resident’s car and driving off. Beaufort County officers found the vehicle just down the street and arrested the man on a flurry of charges, including a number of violent felonies from past arrest warrants.
Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to a home on Muddy Creek Road just before 2 a.m. Sunday, where a woman showed them surveillance footage from earlier that night of a man “crawling out of the woods, covered in dirt and in his underwear,” according to a police report. The man then climbed inside the woman’s 2020 Chevy Malibu and drove away, she said.
Meanwhile, other officers had responded to a report of suspicious activity just down the road, where another homeowner said someone was “grunting and moaning” outside her house. Sure enough, he was also covered in dirt and wearing only underwear.
Investigators quickly connected the two incidents, said Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Maj. Angela Viens, noting the man’s chest tattoo that matched the one seen earlier on surveillance footage. The man, identified as Hilton Head resident Erick Ochoa-Herrera, 26, attempted to run from police before being detained and handcuffed.
Ochoa-Herrera told police he had been jumped at gunpoint by one or more unknown suspects, who stole all his possessions and “even made him strip down to his undergarments,” according to the report. He also gave officers several fake names before being identified, Viens said.
Police charged Ochoa-Herrera early Sunday morning with grand larceny, giving false information to law enforcement, fleeing to evade arrest, first-degree domestic violence, first-degree burglary and first-degree assault and battery. The latter three charges came from arrest warrants related to an August 2019 domestic incident, when Ochoa-Herrera allegedly broke into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment at Hilton Head Gardens and tried to attack her new partner with a knife.
The resident’s Chevy was recovered on Muddy Creek Road and returned to its owner, Viens told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, Ochoa-Herrera was being held on a $60,000 cash bond at the Beaufort County Detention Center.
This story was originally published August 8, 2023 at 1:58 PM.
