By FREIDA FRISARO and CURT ANDERSON
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The car owned by a missing 74-year-old Florida Lyft driver was found in North Carolina and the man who was driving it is wanted in connection with a homicide last week in southwest Florida, authorities said Friday.
Lyft driver Gary Levin hasn’t been heard from since Monday, when his family says he picked up a customer in Delray Beach. His red 2022 Kia Stinger was spotted in Miami that day, and then in a rural area north of Lake Okeechobee and later in north Florida, officials said.
The vehicle was seen Thursday evening in North Carolina after the U.S. Marshal’s regional task force asked authorities to be on the lookout. Matthew Flores was arrested following a police chase through three counties, Rutherford County, North Carolina Sheriff Aaron Ellenburg told The Associated Press.
Ellenburg said North Carolina state troopers used stop sticks to halt the vehicle in Ellenboro. The sheriff said Flores fled briefly on foot before he was apprehended and taken to a hospital for an evaluation. He was later booked into the county jail, and the vehicle was taken to a secure location, the sheriff said.
Flores, 35, was being held on no bond for a parole violation and a $615,000 bond for charges in North Carolina that include eluding law enforcement, speeding and intoxicated driving.
He appeared at a brief hearing in North Carolina where a judge set bail at $2 million and scheduled another hearing Feb. 22, according to news outlets. Flores would eventually be extradited to Florida, where he is a suspect in a slaying on Jan. 24 — nearly a week before Levin went missing on Monday. It was not immediately known whether Flores has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf.
Authorities are investigating how Flores obtained the missing Lyft driver’s car — Levin’s family said they do not know whether Flores was the passenger Levin picked up in Delray Beach on Monday. John Eason, the police chief in Wauchula,…
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