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2 charged with robbing Brady Township home Friday

Two men were accused of tying up a woman and holding her at gunpoint while they took thousands of dollars from her Brady Township home earlier this month, according to charges filed Friday, May 24.

Damean M. Felmlee, 28, and Herbert D. Zellefrow Jr., 53, were charged with felonies robbery, burglary, theft and conspiracy and misdemeanors unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, simple assault, terroristic threats and conspiracy after police said they removed thousands of dollars in cash and other items from the home May 6.

Felmlee was captured Sunday in Farmington Township, Clarion County, following a manhunt after the charges were filed, according to several news outlets.

State police in Clarion could not be reached for comment, but officials at the Clarion County Jail confirmed Felmlee is being held there.

Court documents do not indicate if Zellefrow is in custody. Zellefrow was not in custody at the Clarion County Jail or at the Butler County Prison, according to officials.

Preliminary hearings for both men are scheduled June 5 before District Judge Joseph Nash.

State police said Felmlee and Zellefrow visited the home on McCommons Lane prior to the robbery. Police said the men arrived at the front door May 5 and told the woman who lived there they were circulating a gun rights petition.

When the woman did not sign the petition, police said, the men left, but they returned later and asked to use the woman’s phone, saying their car broke down.

The woman allowed the men to make a phone call, and the men left the home, police said.

The woman then received two calls from a number connected to Felmlee, police said.

On a call that came in around 9:30 a.m. May 6, an individual told the woman, “we’ll be there in an hour,” police said.

An hour later, according to charging documents, two men, later identified as Felmlee and Zellefrow, entered the woman’s residence. Police said they pointed guns at her and demanded $40,000.

The woman told them she did not have that amount of money, police said. The men brought the woman into a bedroom, zip-tied her hands behind her back and each pointed a pistol at her again, threatening to kill her if she didn’t surrender the money, police said.

Felmlee and Zellefrow took a large sum of cash and told the woman not to move until they left the home and sounded their car horn twice, police said.

When the woman was able to free herself, police said she discovered two cordless telephone handsets, rings, prescription drugs, three rifles and a shotgun were taken along with the cash.

Police later interviewed Felmlee’s girlfriend, who said Felmlee and Zellefrow had left where they were staying in Rimersberg on May 6 to look for jobs.

Felmlee’s phone records show that he had been in the area where the robbery took place once a day between May 1 and 6, police said. The records indicate he had been near the woman’s residence May 5 and 6 and had called her home phone several times those two days.

Police said vehicles connected to Felmlee and Zellefrow were seen on surveillance footage in the area of the woman’s residence a few days prior.

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