POINCIANA – The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office is discounting — for now — reports that a knife was found in the car of a Poinciana woman, Nicole Fields, 26, who has been missing since last week, and who is considered to be in possible danger from her ex-boyfriend.
“I’ve received many media calls in reference to a knife being found in Nicole’s vehicle,” wrote Twis Lizasuain, the public and media relations director for the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, in an email sent out this afternoon.
“This information was not provided by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office,” Lizasuain wrote. “I cannot confirm if anything was located in the vehicle because at this time, the vehicle is in Monroe County.”
The car had been driven by Fields’ former boyfriend, 28-year-old Steven Louis, who crashed it and ended up in the hospital, in the custody of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. Monroe County is in South Florida and includes Key West.
On Tuesday, Osceola County Sheriff’s detectives obtained a felony warrant of aggravated battery for Louis, and late in the afternoon, he was released from the Monroe County hospital and got transported back to Osceola County to face this charge.
The car, a teal 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass with Florida tags — which belonged to Fields — is also being brought back to Osceola County so it can be processed, Lizasuain wrote in the news release.
“This is still a very active investigation,” she wrote.
Since last Friday, Osceola County Sheriff’s deputies have been asking for the public’s help in finding Fields, who they believe could have disappeared after meeting her estranged boyfriend, Louis, at a court hearing to get him to pay back child support.
It was Fields’ mother who notified law enforcement on Friday, Nov. 4 after her daughter failed to return home from a scheduled court hearing at the Osceola County Courthouse in downtown Kissimmee.
The hearing had been on Thursday, Nov. 3, and involved custody for the child that Fields and Louis had together.
Fields’ mother tried calling her daughter throughout the night, but reported to the sheriff’s office that her daughter didn’t answer and she also failed to pick up her daughter from the babysitter.
Deputies started their investigation on Friday, and learned that Louis had contacted some of his friends and family members and made threats to harm himself. Deputies also got information that Fields and Louis has been in Poinciana sometime on Thursday.
The next day, Louis was arrested by deputies in Monroe County, after he was spotted driving Fields’ car and began speeding to elude authorities. The car crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, and Louis was arrested at the scene. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has several traffic charges pending against him.
Osceola detectives went to Monroe County over the weekend to interview Louis, who is still in the hospital today.
Lizasuain sent out an email update that night, noting that detectives “arrived in Monroe County and made initial contact with Steven Louis while he was still in the hospital. There are no further details regarding this, but the investigation is on-going and detectives will continue to speak with him. As of this morning, he is still in the hospital. I have no time frame as to when he will be released or when he might be brought to Osceola County. He does have charges in Monroe County. Nicole Fields is still missing and we encourage anyone with information to call our agency or Crimeline.”
Fields is described by deputies as a white woman, 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with waist length blonde hair and blue eyes.
Anyone with information on this case is being asked to call the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office at 407-348-2222 or Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS (8477). Calls made to Crimeline remain anonymous, and tips that lead to the felony arrest of a suspect become eligible for cash rewards of up to $1,000.
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