Deputies find fugitive hiding in closet in Unity mobile home

After three months on the lam, a Latrobe fugitive is back in custody now that Westmoreland County sheriff’s deputies tracked him down — hauling him from a small crawl space in a bedroom closet of a Unity mobile home.

Deputies arrested both Collin A. Quakenbush, 24, and Katelyn Stevens, 25, the woman authorities said hid him for several weeks inside her mobile home on Daily Avenue, near Pleasant Unity.

Quakenbush was wanted on eight bench warrants for failing to appear at court hearings on multiple cases of conspiracy, possession of drug paraphernalia, retail thefts, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and a pending preliminary hearing for burglary and theft in Derry Township. His $50,000 bond was revoked Thursday by Greensburg District Judge Chris Flanigan. Quakenbush is being held in the county jail.

He was released from the county lockup in November after posting bond, according to court dockets.

Stevens also is being held in the jail on $15,000 bond. She is charged with hindering apprehension of a fugitive.

Deputies had been watching Stevens’ home after receiving reports Quakenbush was hiding there for “several weeks,” Deputy Robbie Orbin reported in court documents.

Deputies spoke to Stevens, but she repeatedly claimed she had not seen him “in more than a month,” Orbin reported.

Around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, deputies saw a car with three men pull up. When asked why they were there, “they said they were there to see Quakenbush because he had some of their property,” Orbin reported.

When the men knocked on the door, Orbin reported Stevens told the them to leave “because it was too hot” with the deputies around.

Deputies obtained a search warrant and located Quakenbush hiding in the crawl space above a hot water heater.