ELIZABETHTON – A Roan Mountain woman was arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges she had armed herself with a baseball bat and chased her boyfriend on a trail leading to the Appalachian Trail.
Elisabeth Lynnette Buchanan, 20, 193 Willow Perkins Road, Roan Mountain was arrested by Deputy James Stevens of the Carter County Sheriff’s Department after she returned from the trail.
Stevens said he responded to a to a domestic violence call at a trail head of the Appalachian Trail at Hampton Creek Road. He spoke with a witness who said she saw a Mustang slide into the gravel pull off at a high rate of speed. She said a man and a woman were arguing inside the car.
The witness said the man got out of the car and the woman grabbed him by his shirt. The man broke free and ran for the metal gate that leads to an access trail to the Appalachian Trail.
Buchanan allegedly got out of the Mustang with a baseball bat and started chasing the man.
Stevens went into the woods to try and find the couple. While he was searching, Buchanan came back to her car.
Stevens returned to the trail head and asked her what had happened. He said she told Stevens she had an argument with her boyfriend and she admitted to chasing him into the woods armed with an aluminum baseball bat. She said she lost sight of him and became scared out in the woods, so she returned to her car.
Stevens said the parking lot had skid marks approximately 15 feet long, where the Mustang had entered. He said once Buchanan got out of the vehicle, it rolled backwards approximately 60 feet before being stopped by a ditch along the highway. He said Buchanan told him she forgot to place the car in park during the altercation.
After receiving her statement, Stevens arrested Buchanan on charges of aggravated domestic violence and reckless endangerment.
Buchanan appeared in Sessions Court on Wednesday. Judge John Walton assigned a public defender to her case and ordered her to be back in court on Oct. 5.