BELFRY, Ky. — A complaint about squatters resulted in two people being arrested on burglary charges.
And one of them was later charged with drug trafficking after being found with meth and fentanyl at the jail.

Police were called to Cow Branch Road at Belfry Wednesday evening over a report of people staying in a vacant home without permission.

There, they encountered Vangie Thacker, 52, on the front porch and could hear a man and woman arguing inside. When they went inside to investigate, the man and woman ran away and couldn’t be located.

Thacker told police she had been staying in the home a few days because she had nowhere else to go and she had been told it was owned by someone in her family. She was arrested on a charge of third-degree burglary.

Police went back to the house early Thursday morning to see if the two people who had fled had returned and found Donique Mitchem, 41, hiding in a closet.

She told police she and her boyfriend had fled earlier because they thought someone was coming to kill them. She also said Thacker had said the home was hers and was letting them stay there. She was also arrested for third-degree burglary as well as fleeing police.

During a search at the jail, she was found with two bags containing an ounce of fentanyl each and another bag containing half an ounce of meth. She was additionally charged with meth and fentanyl trafficking and promoting contraband.

Both women remain in the Pike County Detention Center.