Maine State Police are searching for the driver who led police on two high-speed chases before crashing into a tree Thursday night in Manchester, then running off.

A trooper tried to pull over a Pontiac Grand Am driven by Steven N. Black, 28, on Route 202 in Manchester, but broke off the pursuit after speeds topped 100 mph, police said. Winthrop police spotted the car and tried to pull it over along routes 135 and 202 but lost it on Pond Road in Manchester.

They found the car crashed into a tree on a nearby camp road near the West Gardiner town line, police said. With the help of a police dog, troopers followed the driver’s footprints along the shore and on the ice of Cobbossee Lake for more than five miles but without success.

Black faces charges of driving with a suspended license, eluding an officer and driving to endanger, police said. Black has no fixed address but lives in the Augusta area.

Police ask that anyone with information about Black’s location call 624-7076.


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