UPDATES: Manhunt underway for RV driver who led chase from LA to Bakersfield
NOTE: Below, you'll find updates to this developing story, first published Tuesday afternoon, May 1.
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UPDATE (8:56 a.m., Wednesday): The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says it cannot disclose the location of detectives or the status of the investigation. The department says a more specialized team has been brought in to search for Stephen Houk. Sheriff's officials are asking the public to keep an eye out and warn that the suspect could change his appearance.
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UPDATE (5:14 a.m., Wednesday, May 2): The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says kids have been reunited with their mother.
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UPDATE (7:40 p.m.): The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says both children have been recovered and are safe.
The Sheriff’s Department says both children, one 3 years old and the other 11 months old, are the suspect’s biological children.
The suspect, 46-year-old Stephen Houk, was not found in the motor home, and a manhunt is underway.
He is believed to be armed and dangerous.
Previous updates in this developing story are below.
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UPDATE (7:10 p.m.): California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Rodriguez says a 3-year-old child is out of the RV and safe.
Rodriguez says they're being "as patient as possible" with the driver, who is still in the RV, and they want to resolve the situation in the safest possible way.
Officers don't know if the driver, 46-year-old Stephen Houk, is armed. Officers also don’t know if anyone else is in the RV, as Houk hasn’t been communicating with them.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, however, believes an 11-month-old child was also in the RV.
Rodriguez, the CHP officer based in Bakersfield, says officers are unsure of how Houk is connected to the child, but the L.A. Sheriff’s Department says Houk is the father.
The family of the boy has been notified that he is safe, Rodriguez says.
Rodriguez isn’t sure where Houk is from, and the RV has out-of-state plates.
The Sheriff's Department says Houk was a parolee at large who was believed to be armed. He was also wanted for evading and alleged child abduction and child endangerment.
The Sheriff's Department also says the man is a registered sex offender out of Oregon.
The vehicle pursuit started around 2:30 p.m. in the Mid City/Wilshire area of Los Angeles.
The pursuit stretched over the Grapevine section of Interstate 5, into Kern County, and through Bakersfield -- changing directions multiple times on the 99 freeway. It ended nearly four hours later in a rural area off the 99 north of Bakersfield.
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UPDATE (5:56 p.m.): The driver has stopped on the edge of an orchard at Merced Avenue and Zerker Road in a rural area off the 99 freeway north of Bakersfield.
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UPDATE (5:50 p.m.): The RV driver is now off the 99 freeway. He's went onto surface streets and at least one dirt road in the vicinity of Merced Avenue.
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UPDATE (5:42 p.m.): The RV driver is on the phone with a law enforcement negotiator and says he won't stop until he can hand over his two children to their mother, a law enforcement official tells Eyewitness News.
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UPDATE (5:34 p.m.): The RV driver is now getting on northbound 99 from Buck Owens Boulevard.
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UPDATE (5:28 p.m.): The RV driver has turned north on Oak.
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UPDATE (5:25 p.m.): The driver has gotten off at Ming Avenue.
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UPDATE (5:24 p.m.): The CHP reports the RV driver is back on northbound 99.
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UPDATE (5:15 p.m.): The California Highway Patrol says this chase is back on the southbound side of the 99 in Bakersfield.
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UPDATE (5 p.m.): The RV driver has turned around again and is now heading north on the 99 in Bakersfield.
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UPDATE (4:45 p.m.): The RV driver has turned around and is heading south on 99.
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UPDATE: The RV has passed the Eyewitness News studios on northbound 99 in central Bakersfield.
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UPDATE: The RV has been seen on the northbound side of Highway 99 and has just passed Olive Drive.
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UPDATE: An Eyewitness News photographer has spotted this RV heading north on the 5 freeway on the valley floor. The chase is now in Kern County.
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CBS News in Los Angeles reports authorities are pursuing the driver of an RV on the Grapevine portion of northbound Interstate 5.
A child is possibly in the vehicle, CBS L.A. reports.
This is a developing story.