Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1990 TAG: 9007110386
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Henderson was arrested at 12:30 p.m. local time in Baker City, Ore., by two patrol officers from the Baker City Police Department.
He was being held at the Baker County Jail.
An arraignment will be held today in Baker City at which the suspect will say if he plans to waive his right to extradition proceedings or fight his return to Virginia.
Henderson, 33, faces capital murder, abduction and robbery charges in Augusta County in the January kidnapping and slaying of Whitlock, a James Madison University student from Roanoke.
Another man, Tommy David Strickler, was convicted on the same charges June 21, and an Augusta County jury recommended he be executed.
Strickler's sentencing is scheduled Aug. 27.
Henderson, of Frost, W.Va., also has been charged by the FBI with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Investigator Bill Campbell of the Augusta County Sheriff's Department said authorities were led to Henderson after the FBI traced a telephone call he made about a month ago to an acquaintance in West Virginia.
Campbell, the chief investigator in the Whitlock case, said the FBI traced the call to Baker City and sent photographs of Henderson to police there. Baker City Police Chief Douglas Humphress said he received the photographs late last week and began an investigation. Several officers said they had seen a man who looked like Henderson.
Henderson was boarding in a house across the street from where one police officer's daughter was living.
Henderson, who sometimes goes by the nickname "Rebel," is believed to have been living in Baker City for two or three months, Humphress said.
He was using the alias Raymond Taylor and was not employed, Campbell said. "He was just kind of bumming around."
Shortly after leaving the house where he was living, he was arrested as he got into a car that was illegally parked. He had been living in the house with three or four roommates in the town of 9,500 people, but he apparently hadn't known them previously, Campbell said.
He said Henderson first denied that he was wanted in Virginia and denied that his name was Ronald Lee Henderson, but later confirmed his identity.
Henderson made a statement to police in Baker City concerning the Whitlock slaying, Campbell said, but he didn't know the contents of the statement.
Humphress would not confirm whether any statements were made.
Whitlock was kidnapped and murdered Jan. 5.
"It was a stroke of luck that he stayed in one place long enough for us to catch him," Campbell said.
Since January, he said, authorities had placed Henderson in Tennessee, Texas, Nevada and other locations along the West Coast before pinning him down in Oregon.
He had been arrested several times on minor charges in that period, according to Campbell, including once for possession of marijuana in Tennessee just 10 days after Whitlock was killed.
But he always gave local police false names and would flee after being released on bond before authorities had time to run a fingerprint check.
The television show, "America's Most Wanted," was considering profiling Henderson, but Whitlock's parents, Ed and Esther Whitlock, are glad they won't have to wait for the show.
"I'm just so happy, just so relieved; that's the main thing. Both of us are relieved," Ed Whitlock said.
Augusta County Commonwealth's Attorney A. Lee Ervin, who prosecuted Strickler, also expressed relief.
Strickler was convicted - and Henderson has been charged - with killing Whitlock with a 69-pound rock that they allegedly dropped on her head two or three times.
"I'm happy that he didn't hurt anybody else before he was caught," Ervin said. "And I can assure you that we'll be working to bring him back to Virginia as quickly as possible."
If Henderson waives extradition proceedings, Campbell said Augusta County deputies could be sent to Oregon as early as today to escort him back.
But Ervin said it still would be several months before Henderson could be tried. If Henderson fights extradition, it could take from three weeks to three months before he is brought back.
Ervin would have to file a request for extradition with Gov. Douglas Wilder, who in turn would forward the request to Oregon. The governor there would then have to issue a warrant ordering that Henderson be extradited.
Either way, Ervin was confident Henderson eventually will be returned.
"I think Mr. Henderson deserves to be tried on charges of capital murder," he said. "I want to get him to court, and I want see justice done."
by CNB