Authorities Continue Search for Man

Ventura County authorities Sunday continued to search for a man who has seven outstanding felony warrants and eluded sheriff’s deputies last week during a foot chase.

David Matthew Clawson, 21, of St. Charles, Mo., was last seen hiding in a cornfield in El Rio, authorities said. He fled after deputies chased him and his 17-year-old girlfriend, who was later taken into custody and transported back to Missouri.

“He’s told his girlfriend he’s not going to be taken alive,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Detective Charles Harwood said. “We think he’s hanging out in the Ventura-Oxnard area.”

Harwood said Clawson is a suspected drug dealer who was raised in Ventura, although his parents have since moved to St. Charles. Authorities suspect that he came to California because he would have a bigger drug clientele. Since returning to the area, he has stayed at the Doubletree Hotel in Ventura, the Radisson Suite Hotel in Oxnard and the Oxnard Hilton, Harwood said.

Clawson left St. Charles on June 27, and authorities there said he is wanted in connection with a variety of crimes, including numerous burglaries.

“If there’s something stolen out of his neighborhood, that’s who we suspect,” St. Charles County Sheriff’s Detective Bob Carmody said.

Carmody said it is likely that Missouri authorities will extradite Clawson if he is caught.

Authorities said they do not know if Clawson is armed. He is 6 feet, 1 inch tall, weighs about 175 pounds, has black hair and brown eyes and a scar on his chin.

Anyone who sees Clawson should call their local police department.