CLIMAX (WKZO) -- Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s deputies have the man who held up the Sturgis Bank and Trust in Climax earlier this month.  He escaped into a corn field and was the subject of an intensive search covering hundreds of acres that day. It was an old-fashioned manhunt.

He has been formally arraigned and ordered held on $250,000 bond.  Detectives say he confessed to having gambling debts that he had to pay. 

In the end, it was a very modern digital investigation that tracked him down.  A deputy who normally works the jail cross-checked descriptions with arrest records and photos, and eyewitnesses came up with a list of likely suspects.

Sheriff Richard Fuller says 46-year-old Michael Lee Mitchell of Parchment was among them.  He was in their system because of a previous traffic violation that resulted in an arrest.

Mitchell confessed when confronted and turned himself in Thursday morning.