A Greenbrier County man is back in custody after a failed escape attempt. Joseph Keith Forren, 22, of Laurel Court in Lewisburg, is now facing charges of escape in addition to his original charges of fraud and petit larceny.
Forren’s legal troubles began back on August 2. On that day, officers were notified of a theft that had occurred at the Dollar Tree store on Piercy Drive in Lewisburg. An employee’s wallet and cell phone had been allegedly stolen from the employee locker room. The victim did not contact law enforcement until later that evening, after receiving a notification from Facebook advising her that an attempt had been made to transfer $700 from her personal bank account into the Facebook pay account of Joseph Keith Forren. The victim recognized Forren’s picture as a person who had been in the Dollar Tree earlier that day. Thanks to the Facebook notification, the victim was able to cancel the transaction before it had gone through.
According to the criminal complaint, officers acquired Forren’s phone number from his Facebook account. Upon calling the number, a female voice answered and allegedly told officers that she knew Forren, but couldn’t provide his information to law enforcement.
Officers spent several days attempting to locate Forren, but were unsuccessful.
In addition, it was noted in the original criminal complaint that: “From my understanding, Joseph (Forren) was also accused of stealing a motor vehicle in Alderson.”
In the early morning hours of Thursday, Novemner 12, the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Department successfully located Forren, and arrested him for one misdemeanor and two felony warrants issued by the Greenbrier County Magistrate. While in custody, Forren allegedly attempted escape by fleeing through the main entrance of the Sheriff’s office. According to the criminal complaint, Forren was handcuffed at the time of his attempted escape. Multiple law enforcement units from across Greenbrier County were notified and joined the manhunt. The complaint also states that K-9s were dispatched to assist in the search for Forren.
The manhunt concluded with the successful re-capture of Joseph Keith Forren. Forren is currently being held at Southern Regional Jail on a cash-only bail amount of $12,000.
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