Missing Adult, HELP NEEDED (crime in progress?) [SC]

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Police say inmates who escaped in Kentucky abducted S.C. woman

The Associated Press

Two inmates that escaped a Kentucky prison earlier this month are on a cross-country crime spree and have now been linked to two abductions, the latest being a 44-year-old South Carolina woman, authorities say.

The escaped convicts also are suspects in the abduction of a Kentucky man as well as a burglary here and numerous car thefts, police said. "These guys have been hopscotching around the country in different stolen vehicles," said Horry County police Detective Todd Cox.

A videotape confirmed Alice Louise Donovan, of Galivants Ferry, was abducted Thursday from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway and she remains missing, authorities said Sunday.

The inmates also are suspected of abducting James Hawkins, 42, of Hanson, Ky., who freed himself after 14 hours of being bound to with duct tape and electrical cord to a tree in Indiana, authorities said.

Branden L. Basham, 21, of Hopkins County, Ky., and Chadrick E. Fulks, 25, of Logan County, Ky., escaped Nov. 4, authorities said. Basham was serving a 5-year sentence for criminal possession of a forged instrument and Fulks was awaiting trial on robbery charges, authorities said.

As Donovan's family passed out fliers with her photo, police said Sunday her ATM card had been used in Little River and near Raleigh, N.C., late Thursday and Friday. Police don't know if she is being held captive.

"She could be tied to a tree, or she could be in the trunk of a car. We just don't know," Horry County police Detective Tony Collins said. The recent abduction occurred about 45 minutes after the inmates shot at a local man who interrupted a burglary at his son's mobile home in rural Horry County, police said.

Carl Jordan said he tried to block-in a green minivan with his truck when he saw the robbery in progress. But a man saw him and fired a pistol, shattering one of the windows on his truck. Jordan said he sped away and the men chased him before eventually turning. Then Jordan turned around and tried to follow the minivan, he said.

"I was scared, but doggone it, they were messing with my stuff," Jordan told The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News.

Police said the escapees took the minivan after abandoning Hawkins' truck in northern Indiana. The minivan was found in rural Horry County and authorities also found a stolen truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Police think the truck was taken after the minivan was dumped.

Police aren't sure why the men came here, but at least one of the escapees has an outstanding warrant in Horry County. Collins said something must have brought the men to Myrtle Beach, but information on the warrant wasn't available late Sunday.

Horry County police didn't connect the abduction and the burglary until Saturday. "We had all the pieces, but we didn't know we had a puzzle until we put them together," Collins said. "Then we realized how bizarre the whole thing was."

Praying that today they will find Alice....Keep the faith...the two perps didn't harm their first kidnap victim, Im praying they won't harm Alice either.

Prayer sent ...

Morning BUMP.

thanks for posting the A/P story on this.....

It's sad to see it all confirmed so officially in a newspaper now, all this speculation and concern on FR now officially reported.

This is so worrisome....I pray she is OK.

Horry County police didn't connect the abduction and the burglary until Saturday. "We had all the pieces, but we didn't know we had a puzzle until we put them together," Collins said. "Then we realized how bizarre the whole thing was."

The Freepers and Timebombers knew!

Morning prayer BUMP.

Here's another article:

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/4545908.htm

Posted on Mon, Nov. 18, 2002

Police link Ky. escapees to abduction
By David Klepper
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Myrtle Beach Police believe two men who broke out of a Kentucky jail two weeks ago might have kidnapped a Galivants Ferry woman after a cross-country crime spree that included a home invasion in Conway.

Alice Louise Donovan, 44, was abducted during a Thursday night Christmas shopping trip in Conway, police said Sunday.

A videotape from the Wal-Mart confirmed that Donovan was abducted from the store parking lot at 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, according to FBI agent Jeff Long.

Police believe that the escapees -- Chadwick Fulks, 25, and Branden Basham, 21 -- kidnapped her and stole her dark-blue 1994 BMW sedan.

"We thought she was shopping, and I didn't really think anything unusual had happened until she didn't ever come home," said Barry Donovan, Alice Donovan's husband. "We just have to assume the worst won't happen."

The kidnapping occurred about 45 minutes after two men shot at a local man who interrupted a burglary at his son's mobile home near the Forney community in rural Horry County.

The abduction is the latest in a series of crimes that started Nov. 4 when the two men fashioned a 25-foot-long escape rope out of bed sheets at the Hopkins County Detention Center near Madisonville, Ky.

Fulks was being held there on several charges, including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Basham was serving time in connection with a forgery case.

On Sunday, as Donovan's family passed out fliers with her photo, police revealed that her ATM card had been used in Little River and near Raleigh late Thursday and Friday. The card had been used multiple times since her abduction, said police, who don't know whether Donovan is still being held captive.

The two escapees are already connected to the kidnapping of a Hanson, Ky., man who was abducted when two men knocked on his door, asking to borrow jumper cables and use his phone.

Instead, they abducted James Hawkins and stole his car, driving 70 miles before leaving the 42-year-old truck driver tied with duct tape to a tree in Indiana.

Hawkins, who was clad in shorts and slippers when he was kidnapped, said the men were oddly polite, apologizing even as they held him at knife-point. One man gave him his coat before they left him tied to the tree. Hawkins struggled for 15 hours before freeing himself.

"They weren't violent in any way. They didn't even curse," he told The Sun News on Sunday. "One of them said, 'We hate doing this to you, but ain't nothing going right for us today."'

Hawkins, who was uninjured, said the younger man seemed nervous. He described the other as "coldhearted."

Police hope Donovan's abductors will treat her as well as the men who kidnapped Hawkins.

"It's speculation," Horry County Police Detective Tony Collins said. "She could be tied to a tree, or she could be in the trunk of a car. We just don't know."

A few hours before Donovan's disappearance, two men shot at Carl Jordan, who interrupted a break-in at his son's mobile home. Police believe the escapees were responsible for that break-in, in which five guns were stolen.

At that break-in, the men were driving a green minivan, which police believe they took after abandoning Hawkins' truck in northern Indiana.

After the burglary, the minivan was found in rural Horry County.

A stolen truck was found in the Wal-Mart parking lot, which police believe they stole after dumping the minivan.

Now, Conway police, Horry County police and local FBI agents have joined a growing list of law enforcement agencies investigating the two suspects.

"These guys have been hopscotching around the country in different stolen vehicles," Horry County Police Detective Todd Cox said.

Fulks is wanted on several charges in Kentucky from a series of crimes, including the theft of FBI credentials he allegedly used to impersonate an agent during robberies.

Charges have not yet been filed for the more recent crimes.

It isn't clear to police why the men came here, but at least one of them has an outstanding warrant in Horry County. More information on the warrant wasn't available late Sunday.

"Something must have brought them here," Collins said.

Horry County police didn't connect the abduction and the burglary until Saturday.

"We had all the pieces, but we didn't know we had a puzzle until we put them together," Collins said. "Then we realized how bizarre the whole thing was."

http://www.myinky.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_1552844,00.html

Escapees thought to be headed up coast
Police say suspect's girlfriend may have been involved in crimes

By JOE ATKINSON Courier & Press staff writer 464-7450 or atkinson@evansville.net
November 18, 2002

Two Hopkins County, Ky., jail escapees accused of kidnapping and abandoning a Western Kentucky man are probably making their way up the East Coast, authorities in South Carolina said.

Chadrick E. Fulks, 25 and Branden Basham, 21, are suspected in a burglary and a possible kidnapping in Horry County, S.C., on Thursday, said Tony Collins, a detective with the Horry County Sheriff's Department. The burglary took place at a Conway, S.C., home. The disappearance, involving a 44-year-old Horry County woman, took place at a Wal-Mart about five miles away.

The two men also are accused of kidnapping James Hawkins of Hanson, Ky., taking his pickup truck, and leaving him tied to a tree near Evansville. The truck was later found in Portage, Ind.

"(We believe) they carjacked a lady down here at Wal-Mart and took her in her car, just like they did in Kentucky," Collins said. "We have no information other than the carjacking in Conway, and that the woman's credit cards were used headed up the East Coast - the last location was in Raleigh, N.C. -and that was (Saturday), around noon."

The fate of the kidnapped woman is not known, Collins said.

The men are believed to have kidnapped the woman about five miles from where they committed a burglary, police said. The father of the homeowner interrupted the burglary when he came to check on his son's home. The man told police that the burglars opened fire after he blocked the driveway with his car. The suspects escaped in a van, and the man was not injured.

Police say the van is owned by a female associate of the pair known to police as Tina Sevrance.

The van was found in the Wal-Mart parking lot after the Horry County woman's disappearance. Sevrance was interviewed by detectives over the weekend. The possibility that she is involved has not been discounted, Collins said.

"According to Portage (police), there was some suspicion she was involved in the jailbreak," Collins said. "I don't know what her involvement is, other than a girlfriend; (but) we've got her transportation, so she's waiting for us to release it."

The Horry County Sheriff's Department has sent information on both men, as well as the suspected kidnapping victim, to law enforcement authorities in 15 states along the eastern United States, Collins said. They are instructed to be on the lookout for the men, considered armed and dangerous.

Because the case has left their jurisdiction, however, the Horry County department expects to have little future involvement, Collins said.

"The main federal agency (investigating) is the FBI, and the Marshal's Office is a little bit involved," he said. "It's left our state, and truthfully, my speculation would be that they're going to West Virginia; one of the guys is from West Virginia, so that's the best educated guess I can get from everything on my desk."

Fulks was initially arrested on Aug. 25 when police were called to a domestic disturbance in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Madisonville, Ky., and he was found driving a vehicle with stolen plates. When he escaped Nov. 4, the Lewisburg, Ky., man was being held on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, theft of a license plate, giving officers a false name and 12 counts of using a stolen credit card. According to a Kentucky State Police record, an investigation also found he was involved in burglaries or thefts in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and South Carolina; that the U.S. Marshal's Office wanted him for probation violations; and that the FBI wanted him for allegedly stealing FBI credentials, using them to make traffic stops and then robbing the motorists at gunpoint. Fulks is 6 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds. He has blond hair and blue eyes, with tattoos on his arms and shoulders. Basham was serving a five-year sentence for criminal possession of a forged instrument. He is described as 5-feet 10-inches tall, weighing 180 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He is missing the ring finger of his right hand.

See post #509 for David Klepper article. I know you talked to Klepper personally about Alice..nice job!

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....A videotape from the Wal-Mart confirmed that Donovan was abducted from the store parking lot at 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, according to FBI agent Jeff Long. ....

Has anyone checked to see if there is a connection to this....?

Florence Cash Advance Store Robbed

Bob Juback
News13

The search was on Thursday night (11/14) for two men who robbed a Florence cash advance store. It happened at around five Thursday afternoon. Florence police Major Carlos Raines says the two men entered the building and began to fill out cash advance forms when one of the two went to the counter and pulled a gun. Raines says the men forced the teller to lie on the floor while they took an undisclosed amount of money from the cash drawer and left through the rear entrance. As of Thursday night, the two had not been caught.

Dear Father ,we pray for the safe return of Alice to her family today,

From what I understand, the LE have connected that this may be part of the "spree".

Yes, Klepper's the guy I spoke to. REALLY nice guy. He's the one I accidentally told about the stolen truck being found ... and he didn't know about it yet... But like PL said, maybe that's a GOOD thing... Lit a little fire under the LEO's butts...

OK... so they're finally publishing what we already know... but where's the mention of the search?? And are they going to use volunteers? I'd be willing to make the two hour drive to Raleigh if I could help...

Book marking this for continued follow-up and prayerful support.

....A videotape from the Wal-Mart confirmed that Donovan was abducted from the store parking lot at 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, according to FBI agent Jeff Long. ....

Am I crazy or didn't we confirm that she was abducted on FRIDAY afternoon? Do I have the fliers wrong or are all the articles wrong? Can someone check with Prairie Lady?

Okay. If she was abducted at 2:30 and the Florence robbery was at 5:00, then maybe they left her in the woods somewhere in between. Looks like Hwy. U.S. 501.

"Secret Service most probably because of the ATM involvement... strangely, that's their jurisdiction..."

Hmmmm...interesting! Thanks for the info.

Still praying here!