STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. — At the end of a three-hour ordeal in Stafford County on Friday, detectives found a backpack filled with drugs on an island in the Rappahannock River.
A Stafford sheriff’s deputy stopped a truck in the area of U.S. 1 at the Falmouth Bridge, a span that connects Fredericksburg and Stafford County over the Rappahannock, about 9:35 a.m. Friday. Authorities said the driver had defective equipment on his car and a license plate displayed in the front window.
As the deputy explained why she pulled over the driver, he took off from the truck, ran through some woods, and splashed through the Rappahannock River near Falmouth Beach, said Stafford sheriff’s spokesman Bill Kennedy.
From the other side of the river, Fredericksburg police joined Stafford authorities in the foot chase for the suspect, but neither department was able to arrest him.
Just before 1 p.m. Friday the suspect turned himself into the Stafford sheriff’s office. Afterward, deputies went back to the river and found a backpack filled with several small plastic bags of marijuana, said Kennedy. It was found on a small island in the stream.
Michael Bryan Sager, 29, of 126 Woodland Avenue is Stafford is charged with possession with the intent to distribute, obstruction of justice, marijuana possession, and with several traffic violations, said Kennedy.
Sager was placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail under $2,500 bond.
