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This story is wild...
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Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — The wife of a deputy prison warden who disappeared 10 years ago along with a convicted killer has been found unharmed in East Texas but doesn't appear to be in any hurry to return to her old life, authorities said.
A tip generated by the TV show "America's Most Wanted" led law enforcement to a mobile home in Campti, Texas, where escaped convict Randolph Dial was arrested Monday, said Salvador Hernandez, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oklahoma.
The assistant warden's wife, Bobbi Parker, was found a short time later working at a chicken ranch elsewhere in the county, agents said. Once described by the FBI as an endangered missing person, Parker was not arrested.
"As far as I know, she has no intention of leaving," Shelby County Sheriff Newton Johnson told The Oklahoman late Monday. "She said she wants to stay on the farm and raise chickens."
Dial, 60, was taken into custody without incident. A loaded pistol was found on top of a nearby table, the FBI said.
Investigators initially thought Parker, 42, was kidnapped and held against her will by Dial, who escaped Aug. 30, 1994, from the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite in southwestern Oklahoma.
Two days later Dial, who was convicted of the 1981 murder of a karate instructor, was charged with unlawful flight to avoid confinement, the FBI said. Parker's husband, Randy Parker, was a deputy warden at the prison but has since transferred. The couple have two daughters.
After being found, Bobbi Parker did ask an FBI agent about her daughters and husband, Johnson said. She appeared healthy and unharmed, the sheriff said.
It wasn't clear if Bobbi Parker and Dial remained together in the past 10 years. The pair managed five large chicken houses in a rural area less than 15 miles from the Louisiana border, The Oklahoman reported.
"It's the kind of place where, if a guy just wanted to blend in and not be found, he could do it here," Johnson said.
Dial, a renown sculptor and painter with a master's degree in art, obtained trusty status in prison, meaning he could stay in minimum security housing outside the prison walls.
Dial ran an inmate pottery program with Bobbi Parker. He used a kiln in the Parkers' garage and had full access to their home during the day. The morning of Bobbi Parker's disappearance, her husband saw Dial working in his garage as he left.
When he returned for lunch, he found a note from his wife saying she went grocery shopping. When his wife had not returned home that evening, Randy Parker called the prison and discovered Dial also was missing.
Bobbi Parker's mother received a phone call from her later that night traced to Hurst, Texas. "I can't talk now," she said, crying. "I'm OK. Tell the kids I'll see them soon."
A day later, she made a second call, this time from Fort Worth to a friend. It was the last message her family got from her. "I've got 30 seconds to talk," she said. "I want you to call my home. Tell the kids I love them and I'll be home soon."
Randy Parker, who is now warden at the William S. Key Correctional Center at Fort Supply in northwestern Oklahoma, couldn't immediately be reached for comment late Monday by The Associated Press.
In 2000, Randy Parker said his wife was not afraid of Dial, but was not "overly friendly" toward him. Dial is "personable," yet conniving, he said then. "I always saw him as a coward, just an absolute coward," Parker said. "He always tried to run a con on people."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3118832
---------------------
Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — The wife of a deputy prison warden who disappeared 10 years ago along with a convicted killer has been found unharmed in East Texas but doesn't appear to be in any hurry to return to her old life, authorities said.
A tip generated by the TV show "America's Most Wanted" led law enforcement to a mobile home in Campti, Texas, where escaped convict Randolph Dial was arrested Monday, said Salvador Hernandez, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oklahoma.
The assistant warden's wife, Bobbi Parker, was found a short time later working at a chicken ranch elsewhere in the county, agents said. Once described by the FBI as an endangered missing person, Parker was not arrested.
"As far as I know, she has no intention of leaving," Shelby County Sheriff Newton Johnson told The Oklahoman late Monday. "She said she wants to stay on the farm and raise chickens."
Dial, 60, was taken into custody without incident. A loaded pistol was found on top of a nearby table, the FBI said.
Investigators initially thought Parker, 42, was kidnapped and held against her will by Dial, who escaped Aug. 30, 1994, from the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite in southwestern Oklahoma.
Two days later Dial, who was convicted of the 1981 murder of a karate instructor, was charged with unlawful flight to avoid confinement, the FBI said. Parker's husband, Randy Parker, was a deputy warden at the prison but has since transferred. The couple have two daughters.
After being found, Bobbi Parker did ask an FBI agent about her daughters and husband, Johnson said. She appeared healthy and unharmed, the sheriff said.
It wasn't clear if Bobbi Parker and Dial remained together in the past 10 years. The pair managed five large chicken houses in a rural area less than 15 miles from the Louisiana border, The Oklahoman reported.
"It's the kind of place where, if a guy just wanted to blend in and not be found, he could do it here," Johnson said.
Dial, a renown sculptor and painter with a master's degree in art, obtained trusty status in prison, meaning he could stay in minimum security housing outside the prison walls.
Dial ran an inmate pottery program with Bobbi Parker. He used a kiln in the Parkers' garage and had full access to their home during the day. The morning of Bobbi Parker's disappearance, her husband saw Dial working in his garage as he left.
When he returned for lunch, he found a note from his wife saying she went grocery shopping. When his wife had not returned home that evening, Randy Parker called the prison and discovered Dial also was missing.
Bobbi Parker's mother received a phone call from her later that night traced to Hurst, Texas. "I can't talk now," she said, crying. "I'm OK. Tell the kids I'll see them soon."
A day later, she made a second call, this time from Fort Worth to a friend. It was the last message her family got from her. "I've got 30 seconds to talk," she said. "I want you to call my home. Tell the kids I love them and I'll be home soon."
Randy Parker, who is now warden at the William S. Key Correctional Center at Fort Supply in northwestern Oklahoma, couldn't immediately be reached for comment late Monday by The Associated Press.
In 2000, Randy Parker said his wife was not afraid of Dial, but was not "overly friendly" toward him. Dial is "personable," yet conniving, he said then. "I always saw him as a coward, just an absolute coward," Parker said. "He always tried to run a con on people."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3118832
Aagh, I hate you... I'm trying so hard not to laugh out loud right now.
