Marlana Strausbaugh
Jerry Cooper, an escaped inmate from Brown County, Ohio, has been apprehended after a multi-day search by several agencies.
On Monday, Sept. 15, Cooper, 48, and Roy Butler, 51, escaped the Brown County Jail in Georgetown, Ohio, between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m.
Cooper was arrested on May 2, 2025, and charged with attempted murder, conspiracy, two counts of felonious assault, tampering with evidence and having a weapon under disability. Butler was arrested on Aug. 7, 2025, and charged with trafficking in drugs (Schedule I and II) and having a weapon under disability.
According to Kentucky State Police Post 8 Trooper Zach Haney, both men found a paddleboat on the bank of the Ohio River and used it to cross over into Kentucky near Dover.
Butler was located and apprehended on Tuesday, Sept. 16, in Mason County on Mary Ingles Highway. His arrest citation stated that the local authorities received a call reporting a male walking towards Maysville. It also alleged that Butler refused to provide his name and would not stop walking, fleeing on foot into an overgrown field just north of Mary Ingles Highway.
According to the citation, when Butler was apprehended, he informed law enforcement that Cooper was close by.
The manhunt for Cooper began, and locations including the vicinity of the Dover Fire Department, corn fields, wooded areas, abandoned houses, deer stands and other places that locals had called in were searched.
The Mason County Sheriff’s Office, along with the Maysville Police Department, Bracken County Sheriff, Brooksville Police Department, Brown County Sheriff, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, KSP, Mason County Emergency Management and the United States Marshall Service aided in the search.
On Monday, Sept. 22, Cooper was located and apprehended by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Louisville.
Mason County Sheriff Ryan Swolsky stated in an interview on Tuesday, Sept. 23, that after Butler notified law enforcement that Cooper was in the area, the authorities were able to narrow their search.
He noted that the authorities knew Cooper had stolen a weapon from someone in the area of the woods he was in.
“We’re human and I’m telling you, when we were trucking in the middle of those thick woods, it is scary knowing that he could be 10 feet away from us, we can’t see him, we know what he’s been charged with, he’s waiting there with a rifle,” Swolsky said.
“Like I’ve said many, many times, we’re talking over 1,200 acres of his land, he knows every inch of this land. The way that we handle it is we’re going to assume that he’s there until we can prove that he’s not there,” Swolsky said. “We had a sighting later on that week of him, so okay, that reinforces the fact that, hey, he’s probably still here. Then we saw him on the trail camera, okay, more confirmation he was here, we’re going to stay here until, again, we can prove that he’s somewhere else.”
He noted that the area surrounding Dover is vast, and that it is impossible to cover every inch of it.
“Towards as the week went on, we assumed that he was receiving some help,” said Swolsky. “From the beginning, we were trying to obviously track down his accomplices and who may be helping him. We had an idea that he was receiving some sort of aid. We had received information that he was receiving help and then yesterday was our big break, where he made a phone call from there. We quickly got the ball rolling and were able to tie him down to Louisville.”
Marlana Strausbaugh, 46, and William Strausbaugh, 48, were arrested on Monday, Sept. 22, and charged with escape in the second degree and hindering prosecution or apprehension in the second degree.
Swolsky explained that they were able to locate both alleged accomplices after receiving the tip.
According to the arrest citation for William Strausbaugh, an investigation showed that a cell phone registered to him made a phone call to a member of Cooper’s family.
“That phone was then tracked by ping through the phone carrier and revealed the subject’s phone in Louisville, KY, where Cooper has been known to live and visit in the past. Multiple calls were made to people with a 502 area code,” the citation stated.
It was then that the phone’s carrier provided information that William Strausbaugh was allegedly on his way back to Mason County.
“Multiple units conducted a traffic stop on the listed vehicle for excessive window tint. The subject was the driver of the vehicle from this traffic stop. Subject was detained by Mason County Sheriff Deputies and placed in a KSP cruiser,” stated the citation.
It noted that William Strausbaugh was placed into an interview room during the investigation before being arrested.
Marlana Strausbaugh was also arrested and stated that Cooper had come to her residence.
“Cooper came from around the side of the residence. Female states she provided food and allowed Cooper to shave his head and beard within her residence and then received $25 for gas money from Cooper’s sister,” the citation said.
“I’ve seen a lot of comments from people making light of this, making jokes about it, and I don’t appreciate that. I don’t think there’s anything funny with trying to apprehend somebody that has made threats to kill us. We heard that he made threats to shoot us in the head because he knew we had body armor, so I don’t find it very funny that that is going on,” Swolsky stated. “For people that don’t agree with how we did things, police departments are always hiring.”
Swolsky concluded that it was a team effort and that he was glad that everyone went home to their spouses and kids at the end of the day.
“We just want to thank the community for their support. Like Chief Deputy Linville said, we basically had a mini convenience store down at the Dover Fire Department from everything that people were bringing, so we felt that they were taking care of us and supporting us, and we’re just really grateful to be here in Mason County,” concluded Swolsky.
