The last suspect has been arrested in connection with the first of two brutal home invasions in April and May.

Preston Lamont Lewis was the ninth man sought in the cases.

Lewis was sought for a home invasion where six men armed with handguns were let in by someone at a residence, occupied by two men, a woman and her three children, each under the age of 4. The residence belonged to the woman.

The two men were pistol whipped and one of them was stripped and locked in a closet. The female victim was taken outside and held while the suspects looked for valuables.

The incident was not reported until mid-May. "The victim feared for her life," Wadesboro Police Chief Janie Schutz said in June.

Schutz said the woman kept silent because she and her children were threatened.

Roughly two weeks after the first incident, another similar incident occurred. This time four men were involved. A woman in the second home was strangled to the point of unconsciousness.

When the woman awakened, after an unknown period of time, she went to a neighbor's house and called police. She had also been robbed.

"He's been in hiding for a long time," Schutz said of Lewis. "He let it be known he wasn't going to be taken alive."

He is being held at the Anson County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

More information was not available before press time. Check www.ansonrecord.com and next week's edition of the Anson Record for more information.