PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. — A man wanted in connection to a South Florida kidnapping of a woman and her small children was captured by St. Johns County deputies after a high-speed chase ending in Putnam County. 

St. Johns County deputies received information from the Margate Police Department that a vehicle wanted in connection to a kidnapping of a woman and two children was traveling through St. Johns County. 

Deputies located the car near Interstate 95 and State Road 207. The driver, Michael Anthony McNeal, fled from deputies at a “high rate of speed” through the county, the sheriff’s office said. At one point, scanner audio revealed McNeal was driving the wrong way on the interstate. 

The deputies chased the car into Putnam County where McNeal crashed along U.S. 17 and fled on foot, the sheriff’s office said. Body camera footage shows deputies assisting the woman passenger and her two crying children after the crash. 

The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office deployed their air unit that used a thermal camera to locate McNeal in the back of a dump truck where he was hiding. He was taken into custody without incident. 

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Palatka Police Department and Florida Highway Patrol assisted St. Johns County deputies in the search and arrest of McNeal.

McNeal faces numerous charges in St. Johns and Putnam counties, including aggravated fleeing and eluding law enforcement, resisting law enforcement, child neglect and reckless driving.