Maine State Police troopers search Wednesday morning in Litchfield for suspects from Connecticut, including a man wanted on robbery charges, who authorities said led them on a high-speed chase Tuesday night across central Maine. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

Three people from Connecticut with ties to a robbery in that state and to a gunfire incident recently in Skowhegan were still being pursued by Maine authorities on Wednesday, a day after allegedly leading police on a high-speed chase across the Waterville and Augusta area.

Maine State Police led search efforts all day Wednesday for suspects they considered “armed and dangerous,” focusing on locations in Richmond and Litchfield after the suspects had reportedly fled on foot into the woods.

Christopher Terenc Farrow

Wanted by police are 32-year-old Christopher Terenc Farrow (Young) and 29-year-old Dayshawn Middleton (also known as Day Day or Christopher Jones), both of Connecticut. Farrow was described by authorities as a Black man, 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds, with brown hair and eyes, while Middleton was described as a Black man, 6 feet, 5 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.

Police said there might be a woman with them — Hailey Goeltz, 26, of Connecticut — who was described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall with green eyes.

Authorities said the pursuit started in Waterville Tuesday night after city police officers tried to conduct a traffic stop on a vehicle. Inside the vehicle, they discovered there was a man wanted on charges stemming from a robbery in Connecticut, police said, and the men were also wanted for questioning in connection with a gunfire incident last month in Skowhegan.

Waterville police Chief Joseph Massey said that his department received information earlier in the week from another law enforcement agency that someone in a rental vehicle — a gray, 2020 Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle — was wanted in Connecticut and gave Waterville police a description of the vehicle.

“Officers last night, just before 10 p.m., noticed the vehicle driving on The Concourse,” Massey said Wednesday. “They attempted to stop the vehicle and it fled.”

Dayshawn Middleton

The Concourse is a large parking lot in the heart of downtown Waterville.

Police chased the Tahoe through Waterville and Clinton, and then into Augusta, where it reportedly left Interstate 95 at Exit 113. The chase continued to State Street and onto Western Avenue, where speeds reached 80 mph.

Maine State Troopers joined a pursuit in Augusta when the vehicle drove back onto the interstate, heading south in the northbound lanes, at speeds that at times topped 100 mph approaching the toll booth at West Gardiner.

Authorities said they tried several times to set down spike strips to disable the vehicle, but police couldn’t get out in front of the fleeing vehicle, which at times drove in the wrong lane of traffic and forced other cars off the road.

The chase continued south from Interstate 95 onto Interstate 295, where the vehicle exited in Richmond onto Route 197 and then made a turn onto Route 201 north, traveling between 80 mph and 90 mph.

Game Wardens Kris MacCabe, left, Nick Mangino and David Chabot visited residences in Litchfield on Wednesday where suspects from a high-speed chase were reportedly seen earlier. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

There, police said, at 10:22 p.m. a state police trooper used a “PIT maneuver,” a move whereby the police cruiser forces a vehicle off the road by tapping the rear bumper to shift the vehicle’s weight. That causes the fleeing vehicle to spin out and stop.

At a midday update in Richmond, Maine State Police Lt. Patrick Hood said because the maneuver caused the trooper’s airbag to deploy, it was unclear which direction the suspects fled.

The trooper who forced them off the road was later taken by ambulance to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta for treatment of concussion symptoms and released.

Hood said based on the information in the warrant, members of the state police’s tactical team were called in with a police dog and searched for hours but couldn’t find the suspects.

Hood said that around 6 a.m. Wednesday a resident in the area of Route 197  and John Tarr Road in Litchfield reported getting a knock on the door. When she answered, Hood said, a white woman asked to use her phone.

“She was able to look out and there was a Black man trying to conceal himself and almost coaching the female,” Hood said.

The resident, Jo Marie Arbour, closed the door and called police. She had been in her kitchen getting a cup of coffee when she heard just a light tapping on her storm door.

Jo Marie Arbour Jessica Lowell/Kennebec Journal

“There was a young woman standing there, and she said, ‘I’m three months pregnant and my car broke down and I don’t have my phone,'” Arbour said in an interview Wednesday.

In the nearly 30 years she has lived there, a number of people needing help have knocked on her door, Arbour said, and her house has been broken into five times.

When she answered the door Wednesday, it was still dark out and her porch light was not on.

Arbour asked the woman if she was by herself, and the woman looked off to the side of the doorway. When Arbor looked, she said a Black man was standing against the side of her house right next to the door.

“I kind of got sketched out,” she said. “He started to say something, and I shut that door so darned fast.”

At that time, she said, she was unaware of the chase and the search. Not long after, she said, police started converging near her home, where they based their morning search.

Throughout the morning, state police and the Maine Warden’s Service, searched the area, using aerial surveillance and ATVs as well as a police dog. The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office and Richmond police were also on scene.

That area is wooded, with rolling fields and marshy areas.

Maine State Police troopers search around residences in Litchfield on Wednesday where suspects from a high-speed chase were reportedly seen earlier. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

Hood said there have been no reports of stolen cars and there had been no second sighting as of noon.

“They’re either here, or they left the area,” Hood said. “We want tips.”

Police were pursuing the Connecticut suspects in part because of an incident that occurred Sept. 4 on Norton Lane in Skowhegan.

Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam said Wednesday that around 10 p.m. that day, police were called to Norton Lane, off North Avenue in Skowhegan, where gunfire was reportedly exchanged between people who lived in a home on the street and people visiting them.

“Thankfully, no one was injured,” Bucknam said Wednesday.

The visitors fled in a vehicle and Skowhegan police put out information about the vehicle and were able to identify who the visitors were. Asked if they are the same men police are pursuing today, Bucknam said, “It does appear that way, yes.”

There was a warrant out of Connecticut for one of the men who allegedly was involved in a robbery in that state, according to Bucknam. Detective Sgt. Kelly Hooper is investigating the Skowhegan case.

Hood, the state police lieutenant, said police are urging people to lock their doors and not keep their keys in their cars. Authorities said the suspects remain at large and should be considered armed and dangerous.

Police asked that anyone with information on the suspects call 911 or 207-624-7076 ext. 9.