VIDALIA — After attempting to swim down the Houston Ship Channel in an effort to evade arrest, the man suspected in the Oct. 4 murder in Vidalia was arrested in a Houston suburb Tuesday.

Michael Kelly Stevens, 41, was arrested at 1 a.m. when Harris County, Texas, sheriff’s deputies spotted the vehicle he was driving in a park after the closing time, according to a news release from the Vidalia Police Department.

The vehicle was murder victim Mike Welch’s 2006 Chevrolet Silverado, which has been missing since Welch was discovered dead in his 804 Myrtle St. residence. His throat had been slashed.

Stevens reportedly jumped into the nearby channel and tried to swim away when the deputies approached him. He treaded water until the deputies threw a life ring from a boat, the release said.

The suspect was charged with evading detention or arrest and will likely be magistrated Wednesday in Harris County before he is extradited to Concordia Parish.

Local investigators Randy Stockman, David Hedrick and Jack Fletcher went to Harris County Tuesday to interview Stevens about the case. Stockman is a Vidalia police investigator, and Fletcher and Hedrick work for the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Vidalia Police Chief Ronnie G. “Tapper” Hendricks extended thanks the Harris County Sheriff’s office Tuesday and said hundreds of man hours had gone into the case since it began.

The suspect had been living with Welch at the time of the murder, and Stevens had used the Myrtle Street address when he registered locally as a sex offender.

Stevens has two prior sex crime convictions.