Fugitive Charged in Deadly DUI Crash Arrested After Six Years on the Run

A Six-Year Manhunt Comes to an End

For more than six years, the family of a victim killed in a drunk driving crash in Medina County, Ohio, waited for justice. That wait ended on Friday, September 11, when U.S. Marshals finally caught the man accused of taking their loved one's life — and they found him not in Florida or Arizona, where investigators had long suspected he was hiding, but in a Cleveland medical facility.

The U.S. Marshals-led Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested David Sawicki, 56, who was wanted by the Medina County Sheriff's Office on charges of aggravated vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A case was originally filed on April 29, 2020, against Sawicki, who then lived in Homerville, for an incident that occurred April 14, 2020. Shortly after the charges were filed, he vanished.

A Fugitive Who Reinvented Himself

Sawicki was charged in Medina County with aggravated vehicular homicide and DUI stemming from an incident in April 2020, and authorities believed he fled Ohio after the incident and had been on the run for over six years. The investigation was anything but passive. Marshals came to believe Sawicki had ties to Florida and Arizona and was possibly living under the alias "Anthony Horvath." Task force members conducted multiple interviews and distributed "WANTED" posters throughout the U.S., offering monetary rewards to the public.

Back in June, U.S. Marshals offered a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest of Sawicki. That public outreach ultimately paid off. On Friday, members of the NOVFTF, acting on a public tip, were able to find and arrest Sawicki at a medical facility in the 9500 block of Euclid Ave. in Cleveland, where he had checked in. The irony is striking — a man who had spent years evading capture across multiple states was ultimately found because he sought medical treatment.

Voices of Justice

Medina County Sheriff Terry Grice said that the arrest will finally allow family members of the deceased individual in the April 2020 incident to begin to find closure, stating, "The family of the victim in this tragic incident is now one step closer to getting the justice they deserve." For a family that has spent six years without answers, those words carry enormous weight.

U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott credited the community, saying, "The arrest today was a direct result of the community and law enforcement collaborating to take another violent fugitive off the street. We couldn't be as successful as we are at arresting fugitives without the assistance of our great citizens of northern Ohio. Today's apprehension reflects the determination of our cold case investigators and their ability to never give up."

What This Case Reveals

This arrest is a reminder that cold cases rarely die — they simply wait. Law enforcement agencies like the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force maintain active pressure on fugitives for years, leveraging public tips, wanted posters, and multi-state coordination to close the net. Medina County court records suggest the victim was treated in hospitals from April 14 through April 29 — a detail that underscores the severity of the original crash and the weight of the charges Sawicki now faces.

Sawicki will now be processed by the Medina County Sheriff's Office, and the case will proceed through the courts. For a victim's family who has endured more than half a decade of uncertainty, the legal process is only beginning — but after six long years, it is finally .