A man involved in an investigation into a missing Lyft driver in Palm Beach Gardens is being held on $2 million bail in North Carolina.

RUTHERFORD COUNTY, North Carolina. A Florida murder suspect who was arrested Thursday while driving a missing Lyft driver out of Palm Beach Gardens is being held on $2 million bail in North Carolina.

Matthew Scott Flores, 35, appeared before a judge in Rutherford County, North Carolina on Friday after he was detained after chase in three counties Thursday.

Flores faces several charges including second-degree murder, possession of a firearm by the offender, and public use of firearms. He is also accused of evading law enforcement, speeding and driving under the influence.

RELATED: Timeline of missing Lyft driver investigation

Judge Anne McCentire also said he was being held on a manhunt in Florida.

Flores has another hearing scheduled on February 22.

Lyft driver Gary Levin has not been heard from since Monday, when his family said he picked up a client in Delray Beach. His red 2022 Kia Stinger was spotted that day in Miami and then in rural areas north of Lake Okeechobee and then in northern Florida, officials said.

The car was spotted Thursday night in North Carolina after the US Marshal’s Regional Task Force asked authorities to be on the lookout. Flores was arrested following a three-county police chase in Rutherford County, North Carolina by Sheriff Aaron Ellenburg.

Palm Beach Gardens Police Department

Ellenburg said NC State Troopers used stop sticks to stop the car at Ellenboro. The sheriff said Flores briefly fled on foot before being apprehended and taken to the hospital for examination. According to the sheriff, he was later sent to the county jail, and the car was taken to a safe place.

Flores is suspected of murder on January 24, almost a week before Levine disappeared on Monday.

Authorities are investigating how Flores got the missing Lyft driver’s car — Levin’s family said they don’t know if Flores was the passenger Levin picked up at Delray Beach on Monday. John Eason, police chief of Vochula, Florida’s Hardy County, told the AP in a phone interview that cops are heading to North Carolina in hopes of questioning Flores about the January 24 murder and the missing Lyft driver.

“Our biggest concern at the moment is to find and locate Mr. Levine,” Eason said. “A lot depends on whether the suspect is cooperating with us.”

Flores faces charges of second-degree murder and other charges related to last month’s death of Jose Carlos Martinez in Vouchula. Stephanie Velgara, the woman Eason says helped Flores escape the police, will be charged with being an accessory to Martinez’s murder.

It was not immediately clear whether Velgara had a lawyer who could speak on her behalf. Eason said she remained in custody at the Hardy County Jail in Florida on Friday.

Vochula is about 70 miles southeast of Tampa and about 127 miles northwest of Levin’s home in Palm Beach Gardens.

Levin’s daughter, Lindsey DiBetta, told the AP that the family learned that Levin took an unknown client to Okeechobee, a small town on the shores of Lake Okeechobee, and completed the trip sometime after 4:00 pm on Monday.

She said Lyft informed the family that the ride was completed sometime after 4 p.m. He also spoke to friends on the phone around 4 p.m. that day, and “everything looked good,” Dibetta said.

But something went wrong almost immediately, she said. His phone was switched off and no one has heard from him since.

DiBetta said working at Lyft was great for Levin, who loves to tell dad jokes and often tells them over and over again. “It was the perfect setup for him. He drew a new audience every trip,” she said.

She said her father was a bodybuilder before he retired to Florida and that his car “was his brainchild”.

“What happened to my father? (Flores) harmed my father?” Dibetta said. “We just don’t know.”

On Friday, a spokesperson for Lyft released the following statement regarding the investigation: