The woman abducted on Saturday and the subject of the below article is the wife of a Police1 member, a retired military police officer. Her abductors, two escaped convicts, have proven to be mobile. We ask that all Police1 members, particularly those on the East Coast, be on the lookout. A regional alert was sent out through the Police1 Critical Alert Network on Saturday.
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) -- Two inmates who escaped from a Kentucky prison earlier this month are on a cross-country crime spree and are now linked to two abductions, the latest 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 there and numerous car thefts, police said.
“These guys have been hop-scotching 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, Ken. who freed himself after 14 hours being bound with duct tape and electrical cord to a tree in Indiana, authorities said.
Branden L. Basham, 21, of Hopkins County, Ken. and Chadrick E. Fulks, 25, of Logan County, Ken. escaped Nov. 4, authorities said. Basham was serving a five year sentence for criminal possession of a forged instrument. Fulks was awaiting trial on robbery charges, authorities said.
As Donovan’s family distributed 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 said they 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 most 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.”