Fugitive captured at N.H. camp

HAMPTON FALLS, N.H. -- A 26-year-old fugitive linked by police to a weeklong crime spree in coastal Maine awaited extradition yesterday after he was arrested while taking down his tent at a campground.

Derek Dube of Auburn, Maine, described by police as ''armed, dangerous, and suicidal," offered no resistance when New Hampshire State Police and US marshals apprehended him Saturday afternoon at the Wakeda Campground.

Dube's companion, Jessica Brewer, 19, of Edgecomb, Maine, was also taken into custody on a charge of hindering apprehension.

The two were being held at the Rockingham County Jail in Brentwood pending extradition hearings.

Dube checked into the campground Thursday under a phony name and said he was staying alone, according to Jan Hambleton, its co-owner. She said hundreds of people were at the campground when he was arrested.

Dube was sought in connection with several home invasions and burglaries in Boothbay Harbor when he led police on a pair of high-speed chases. The second chase ended Wednesday when Dube crashed a stolen minivan into a row of vehicles at a used car lot in Wiscasset, fled into the woods, and allegedly stole a car that turned up the next morning in Lewiston.

The search for Dube then shifted to the Lewiston-Auburn area, where he grew up and was later convicted of burglary and assault. He served five years in prison and has been on probation since then, police said.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Department had received a tip Saturday morning about Dube's whereabouts and called the US Marshals Service, said Lieutenant Michael McGonagle of the Lewiston police.

Investigators from Lincoln County were sent to New Hampshire to interview Dube and Brewer.