Suspect Dies After Police Chase Near Guthrie

A police chase spanning more than 20 miles came to a deadly end in Guthrie.

Investigators said the chase started when metro police attempted to stop the pickup near I-44 near Southwest 15th Street late Thursday night. Police said they believed the vehicle may have been stolen.

Police said the wild chase topped out at 111 miles an hour. Troopers have identified the driver as 31-year-old Stephen Sloniker.

According to Logan County Sheriff Damon Devereaux, Sloniker wasn't sure where he was headed. He was approaching an intersection on Division Street and College when he hit some railroad tracks and lost control of his pickup. Police said he went airborne into Cottonwood Creek.

"It would be our opinion that he wasn't familiar with this area for him to be travelling down this dead end street at 75-100 miles an hour is a pretty good indication that he didn't know this was a t- intersection," said Devereaux. 

It took the Oklahoma Highway Patrol dive team about 4 hours to rescue Sloniker's body from the creek.

They said the task wasn't easy since the creek was swollen due to heavy rain.