Police Continue to Search for S.C. Woman
By David Klepper and Tonya Root, The Sun News
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Police called in a Marine helicopter to aid in the search for Alice Donovan Wednesday but failed to turn up any sign of the Horry County, S.C., woman, missing now for a week.
Also on Wednesday, Indiana police captured suspect Chadrick Fulks, 25, in the small town of Middlebury, about 15 miles east of Elkhart in northern Indiana.
The other suspect, Brendan Basham, 21, was arrested Sunday by Kentucky police who said he attempted another carjacking and shot at police there.
As of Wednesday, neither suspect has told authorities where the 44-year-old Donovan is, according to Conway Chief Sam Hendrick, whose agency is leading the local investigation. Both men were undergoing “intensive interviews,” he said. With both suspects captured and law enforcement attention focused on searches in Brunswick County, Donovan’s family members said they were hopeful she would be found soon.
But, with almost a week passed since she called her daughter two hours after her kidnapping to say ‘I love you,’ her sister Judy Ezell said she is terrified.
“I’m so afraid she’s been tied up out there since the beginning,” she said by telephone from her home in Wiley, Col. “She’s gone without water or food for a week.”
Searchers converged on U.S. 17 between the state line and Wilmington, N.C., using a N.C. High way Patrol helicopter and a Marine Corps helicopter equipped with heat-sensing cameras to scan for Donovan in the heavily wooded countryside.
Cell phone records show that Donovan’s phone used a cell tower in Brunswick County, N.C., when she called her daughter two hours after she was abducted.
Late Wednesday, Horry County Police officers with a dog team searched areas in the Savannah Bluff area just east of Conway.
“Time is certainly not on our side,” Hendrick said. “Even if she is out there, we’re concerned with her being in the elements. We’ve had some chilly nights.”
The men used Donovan’s bank card at a Shallotte, N.C., convenience store to fill her car with gas just before she placed the call, he said.
During the call, family members said Donovan did not indicate she had been kidnapped.
The men later used Donovan’s bank card in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area, police said. Hendrick said he has not seen videos from the “handful” of ATM transactions or attempted transactions, but said he understands Donovan is not seen on any of them.
They tried to obtain money and goods several times with the card, but failed many times because an incorrect PIN number was used, he said.
The search for Donovan will continue Thursday, according to Brunswick County Sheriff Ronald Hewitt.
Meanwhile, two women who voluntarily traveled with the suspects from Indiana to South Carolina were taken into custody by FBI agents Wednesday morning at a motel, according to the FBI.
Spokeswoman Kathleen Murphy refused to identify the women, or the location of the motel in which they were found.
The women are from Portage and Chesterton, both small towns in northern Indiana, less than 50 miles from where Fulks was arrested Wednesday. The FBI would not disclose their relationships with the suspects.
“We can’t say anything about ongoing investigations,” Murphy said.
Indiana police were notified that Fulks may have returned to Indiana because he has family in the area, according to FBI. Fulks was caught by a police officer after a short chase on foot, according to Kathy Guider, FBI spokeswoman in Indianapolis.
He was found with his brother, Ronnie Fulks, 28, and a woman, Andrea Adams, both of whom were detained for questioning.
Authorities said they hoped to search a home near Goshen Wednesday night, but wouldn’t say what they hoped to find.
Chadrick Fulks is also a suspect in the robbery Monday of the Middlebury Farm Bureau Credit Union.
With both suspects in custody, the charges against Basham and Fulks are starting to mount. Both face a variety of state and federal charges, including kidnapping, carjacking, flight to evade prosecution, robbery and burglary. Basham faces attempted murder charges in Kentucky stemming from his gunfight with police.
Fulks will be arraigned in South Bend, Ind., at a date to be announced, according to Guider.
The two men escaped from the Hopkins county (Ky.) Detention Center Nov. 4 by climbing down a 25-foot rope made of bedsheets.
Fulks was in jail facing charges of credit card fraud, possession of a firearm by a felon and theft. He was arrested Aug. 25 in a Wal-Mart parking lot after a domestic dispute with his wife, 22-year-old Veronica Evans, who also was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, receipt of stolen property and theft.
Basham was serving a five- year sentence for forgery. The day after their escape, police believe they abducted a Kentucky man and stole his car.
They arrived in South Carolina sometime last week, police said, and are suspected of shooting at a man who interrupted a burglary. Forty-five minutes after that theft, they abducted Donovan, police have said.
The investigation’s scope stretches from western Kentucky to the Carolinas, and includes dozens of jurisdictions.
The first man allegedly kidnapped by the pair, Kentucky truck driver James Hawkins, said his captors did not harm him, and even tried to make him more comfortable when they left him duct-taped to a tree. Hawkins freed himself after 14 hours.
One of the men gave Hawkins a coat to help him through a chilly night.
“I certainly hope she was treated as well as the other gentleman they kidnapped ... ,” Hendrick said.
Donovan’s family clung to that hope Wednesday night.
Donovan’s mother and another sister, Gloria Lindsey, stayed glue to their television sets Wednesday, hoping to hear good news.
“We’re relieved they found the other guy,” Lindsey said.
“We’ve not heard one iota from the FBI and we’ve been inundated with calls from people offering support, and the media.” Lindsey said they plan to do some interviews and appear on morning talk shows.
“Until they find her this is our window of opportunity,” Lindsey said. “Everybody’s help is necessary. She needs to be found.”