VAN BUREN COUNTY -- Investigators in Van Buren county hope an Autopsy will help them find the cause of a crash that killed a South Haven Man. It happened at about 2AM Saturday. They say 25-year-old Charles Eugene Howell had to be going at a considerable speed when he drifted off M-43 and into a guardrail, and then went off the road, shot off one bank of a creek bed, hit the other, flipping his 1997 Chevy Pickup over another guardrail and landing upside down. Howell was thrown from the wreck and dead at the scene. There were no signs that alcohol was a factor, but toxicology tests will be conducted.
MATTAWAN -- They thought he might be involved in poaching, but when they finally caught up to a Mattawan man and ran him thru the computer, they found so much more. They tried to pull 36-year-old Joel Caldwell late Saturday night. Instead he pulled his pick-up into a driveway and ran off into the woods, with Van Buren County Deputies right behind him. They caught up when he tripped and fell face first into a drainage ditch.
His license had been suspended 5 times, and he had multiple citations for driving on a suspended license. They also found warrants out of Ottawa Allegan and Van Buren County for failing to pay child support. They plan to add resisting arrest to the list, and they are still looking into the poaching charges.
