Although a truck found at a convenience store near an Interstate 77 interchange matches the description of one state police said was missing from Floyd County, investigators declined comment Friday on its potential relation to Steven Branscome.
The truck, a late model yellow flat bed work vehicle, went missing from a Floyd County tree farm on Wednesday.
The farm is located near the manhunt area where officers have focused their attention on the Branscome search for most of the week.
Branscome was last seen in that area by a Floyd County investigator.
While on a business trip to Charlotte, Pulaski County natives Carl Letner and Sammy Young made a stop in Statesville, North Carolina.
Young, riding separately, motioned for Letner to pull over after he spotted a yellow flat bed truck in the parking lot of a convenience store off Exit 54 on Interstate 77.
Young said he had been watching 10 On Your Side's coverage of the Branscome manhunt all week and recognized the truck matched the description.
"I thought he wanted to go to the restroom," explained Letner, reacting to Young's motion for him to pull over.
After the pair inspected the truck, they found it had a Virginia tag and it appeared the tree farm's name, Phillips & Turman Tree Farm, had been spray painted over with yellow paint.
Letner said they could make out the words "tree" and "Floyd" on the truck, "that's when we called the police," he said.
Young remembered a few tense moments before deputies from the Iredell County Sheriff's Office showed up.
"I had the jitters," he said. "I kinda thought he might still be around."
Letner said the pair also called Virginia State Police and gave them the tag number, TU 95159.
"That's it," Letner recalled the voice on the other end of the phone saying.
When Letner and Young left for home in Pulaski County, they say the truck was surrounded by yellow crime tape.
"I told [Sammy], 'they [are not] going to catch [Branscome] this way but at least we pointed police in the right direction," Letner said.
Young said he has friends in Floyd County who have been tense about the manhunt all week.
"They say they're locking their doors and scared at night," Young said.
State police spokesman Bob Carpentieri, stationed at the manhunt command post in Floyd County, declined to comment on the investigation.
Another state police spokesman said the command post in Floyd will remain open until further notice.
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