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Welfare check turns into meth lab discovery

Posted at 4:51 AM, Feb 26, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-26 18:29:11-05

Akron police doing a welfare check on a missing person discovered a meth lab and arrested six people at a North Martha Avenue apartment late Thursday night.

Resident Deborah Stahl said she called Akron police to report her friend Robert Charles Davis missing. She hadn't heard from Davis since Saturday, when he was last seen at his job at a car dealership on South Arlington Street.

When police visited Davis' apartment, someone turned off the lights inside. An officer walked around to the back and saw a man running from the apartment. After a brief foot chase, officers arrested Timothy J. Walter.

Other officers at the apartment heard the back door slam shut and saw another man through the window, stuffing items inside of a couch. Another man then opened the door and asked police what they wanted. The officers asked the man, identified as Eric D. Campbell, if they could check the apartment. Campbell let them in and as they walked around they observed a two liter bottle with tubing coming out of it and coffee filters in plain sight. Police recognized it was a meth manufacturing operation.

Stahl said that when she got to the home, Akron police had it surrounded and told her there was a meth lab inside.

Akron police confirmed the meth lab to newsnet5.com and were seen bringing meth making materials from the home just after midnight. Police disposed of chemicals and bagged evidence on the hood of a police cruiser. Found inside the home was a loaded hand gun, pseudoephedrine pills and lye, a drain cleaner that meth cooks use to manufacture the drug.

Police said they eventually located four people sitting on a bed in the bedroom. Officers arrested three adult men and three male juveniles in connection with the meth lab and gun found inside the home. Those arrested included Walter, 28, of Kent, Campbell, 25, of Akron, Adam M. Bolar, 25, of Akron, two 16-year-old boys out of Akon, and a 15-year-old boy from Akron.

They were all charged with illegal assembly of chemicals, illegal manufacturing of drugs, and possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, and possession of  drug instruments. Walter was also charged with obstructing and Campbell was charged with weapons under disability after officers found a loaded handgun in the apartment. 

Police took a report on Robert Charles Davis, Jr., 57, of Akron, who, according to Stahl, was still missing on Friday.

Police reported on Friday evening that Davis was located and he was okay. Officials said Davis was in the hospital and was released. When he got home, he called police to let them know he was okay.

Editor's Note: newsnet5.com originally reported the missing man's name as Robert Cook.