He eluded police for more than six weeks, but Larry "Jefro" Thomas, who was wanted for attempted murder, was finally captured in the woods off Quaker Bottom Road in Sparks Nov. 9.

Baltimore County police received an anonymous tip around 6 p.m. that day that Thomas would be at Quaker Bottom and York roads later that evening. When police arrived, they spotted Thomas, who ran into the woods, said police spokesman Shawn Vinson. As helicopters flew overhead, police entered the woods with search dogs.

"Apparently, one of the search dogs detained Thomas at about 8:45," Vinson said. "He appeared well-kept, so we believe he had help from family or friends. We have information he was apparently using the showers at Camp Puh'tok."

Thomas, 41, of Big Falls Road in Monkton, had been on the run since Sept. 25, when he broke into his ex-girlfriend's mother's house on Burke Road in White Hall. After threatening the former girlfriend, Crystal Jones, 23, with a knife, Thomas left, then returned to the Burke Road home with a shotgun.

When Jones ran from the house, Thomas and her mother, Shirley Ann Wilson, struggled over the shotgun, which discharged, police said. Neither Thomas nor Wilson was hit.

Police tried to arrest Thomas at his Monkton home after the incident, but he escaped into the woods.

Since then, Thomas had been spotted several times, but managed to run off into woods each time. He eluded police twice Oct. 29: once when he was spotted outside his Big Falls Road home and a second time when an employee of Camp Puh'tok, a Salvation Army camp on Big Falls Road, saw a man fitting Thomas' description in a bathhouse.

That same day, police arrested Thomas' mother, Hilda Thomas, and charged her with giving false statements to a police officer, obstruction and hindering an investigation, Vinson said. Her court hearing is set for March 7.

Vinson said Thomas faces a Dec. 10 court hearing on charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and two counts of first-degree assault. He was denied bail and is jailed in the Baltimore County Detention Center.

E-mail Pat van den Beemt at northcountynews@patuxent.com