Driver in Sunday car chase taken to Adair County Jail

Marilyn Maltzahn will tell you the intersection of College Drive and North Mulberry Street is usually a quiet part of town. It’s a T-intersection that leads to two dead ends for motor vehicle traffic.

“Nobody goes fast,” Maltzahn said.

But that changed around 9 p.m. Sunday night as the intersection became a trap to end a 15-mile car chase involving Iowa State Patrol and law enforcement from Adair, Montgomery and Union counties.

The chase began in southern Adair County when an Iowa State Patrol officer checked the plates of a car traveling at high speed. The car was registered to 28-year-old Jennifer Benshoof of Creston, who was wanted on a Polk County warrant for aggravated assault. The driver was 20-year-old Nathan Paul Butler of Des Moines. The chase lasted 15 miles from Adair to Union County.

Law enforcement blocked off Cherry Street Road heading north, leaving Butler’s only option to go onto College Drive, which then intersects with North Mulberry Street.

It was a chase to which Maltzahn, who lives on the corner with her husband, Steve, had a front-row seat.

“I was sitting in the chair, and I heard a car going really fast,” she said. “Then, I looked out the window, and I could see the flashing lights.”

The next thing she saw was another vehicle flying north along Mulberry. It was Creston Police Chief Paul Ver Meer, who happens to live just down the road.

The car turned onto College Drive, then veered north on Mulberry, finally running against a small concrete mound in the field that sits at the end of the street.

Randy and Linda Hughes live in the last house on the east side of North Mulberry Street. Monday, as Randy was tending his garden, which lies just a few yards from the crash site, he recalled what he saw Sunday.

“We heard the sirens and saw the lights,” Randy said. “Then we went away from the windows. They didn’t look like they needed any help.”

Benshoof was picked up at the scene and transported to Polk County Jail. Butler took off from the car, finally hiding in the bushes at Creston Police Sgt. Eric Shawler’s home on College Drive. Montgomery County Law Enforcement had brought canines, which helped with the search.

Shawler’s daughter, Morgan, said the capture was made on the patio of next-door neighbor Connie Swanson. She said the police had Butler sit on the curb for a while.

Creston Police Chief Paul Ver Meer said Butler had some cuts on his leg and that he was taken to Greater Regional Medical Center. Butler was picked up at 3 p.m. Monday to be transferred to Adair County Jail. He has been charged with numerous traffic violations and was being held on $2,000 bond.

The car, a white Chevy Impala, was towed from the scene Sunday.