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For Price police, it began as a routine traffic stop. By early Friday morning, two fugitives were settling into cells at the Carbon County Jail.

Police Capt. Bill Barnes said that just after midnight, Officer Drew Olson pulled over a vehicle for a minor moving violation. When both female occupants provided false identification, he became suspicious. Olson also noticed that the passenger was making a concerted effort to avoid his eyes; he called for backup.

Two more Price officers arrived, and they soon confirmed the bashful passenger was Sasha Kay Fowler, a 31-year-old Price woman wanted on several warrants stemming from drug, theft, and false identity offenses. Barnes said Fowler, who was booked into jail on the warrants, had a record of eight previous arrests for similar offenses.

Next up: the driver. One of the officers recognized her as Chelsie Belle Sitterud, 25, a former Price resident listed as a fugitive by Utah Adult Probation & Parole, after having walked away from the Orange Street halfway house in Salt Lake City on Dec. 29.

Joined by two AP&P agents, a search was done on the suspects' car. Inside, they found a backpack — and a locked safe. Inside the safe officers recovered numerous zip-lock style baggies, a digital scale, prescription pills, and a small amount of methamphetamine. Eventually, marijuana also was found stuffed inside Sitterud's bra, Barnes said.

Also retrieved from the car was more than $400 in cash, and several bank cards belonging to people other than the suspects.

Sitterud was booked on her warrants, as well as suspicion of felony drug distribution and possession, and a misdemeanor count of providing police with a false identity. Barnes said she had nine previous arrests for drug, shoplifting, forgery, fraud and previous parole violations.

Twitter: @remims