Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 20, 1995 TAG: 9503200070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When a Roanoke County police officer began a check on a car abandoned on Interstate 81 early Sunday, the worst he expected to find was an injured driver who had wandered away from an accident.
Before long, police say, he had uncovered a bizarre love affair between a convicted rapist just escaped from a North Carolina prison and a state corrections department psychologist - and a suicide pact gone bad.
Roanoke County Detective Jeff Herrick said Officer T.B. Hickman discovered a badly damaged car with North Carolina plates against the guardrail on the ramp to I-81 near Hanging Rock about 2 a.m.
Herrick said Hickman's investigation led him to the nearby Quality Inn on Virginia 419, where a man had come in on foot and checked in under the name John Kay. Checks run on the car revealed it was registered to an Elizabeth Kay.
John Kay, though, turned out to be one of three or four aliases the man gave police. Herrick said the man finally admitted he was John Wayne Martin, 41, an escaped convict from a Winston-Salem, N.C., work farm who had been serving a life sentence for second-degree rape.
``We sent teletypes to North Carolina, and bells and whistles started going off all over the place,'' Herrick said.
The Forsyth County, N.C., Sheriff's Office reported that Elizabeth Kay, a psychologist for the North Carolina Department of Corrections, had been missing since about 10 a.m. Saturday, Herrick said.
Herrick was hauled out of bed about 5 a.m. Sunday to question Martin. About the same time, a woman who said she was Elizabeth Kay called Roanoke police from a hotel near the Civic Center on Orange Avenue, Herrick said.
According to Roanoke investigators, the 45-year-old woman said she was from Clemmons, N.C., and had been abducted and raped twice by Martin.
When Kay turned up, it was a relief to Herrick.
``We were figuring we had a homicide, with the body dumped somewhere between Winston-Salem and here,'' he said.
It was nowhere near that simple.
According to Herrick, Martin said he didn't know where Kay was. He said he had looked up her address in a phone book and stolen the car.
But when he was confronted with Kay's accusations, Martin told a different story, Herrick said.
Martin then said he had been having an affair with Kay, who had been treating him in prison, since August, Herrick said. As Martin's therapist, she was allowed to check him out of the work camp for treatment.
Martin said that about 10 a.m. Saturday, Kay picked him up at the camp and the two headed to Roanoke and checked into a hotel, according to Herrick.
Herrick said Martin told him that Kay said their relationship couldn't go on, and that they should commit suicide; when Kay took a handful of pills and passed out, Martin left in her car, had several drinks in a bar, got lost, wrecked the car, and wound up at the Quality Inn.
When Kay was presented with Martin's account, Herrick said, it wasn't long before she admitted it was true. According to Roanoke police, Kay was examined for signs of rape at Community Hospital. The rape allegation appeared unfounded, they said.
Herrick said the Forsyth County authorities believe the two may have been planning the escape for as long as a week and a half. He said Kay, who is divorced, was scheduled to keep her children this weekend, but made arrangements about 10 days ago for her ex-husband to keep them instead.
Martin was being held Sunday night in the Roanoke County Jail on fugitive charges. Herrick said Martin will be arraigned this morning and taken back to North Carolina.
Kay returned to North Carolina Sunday with Forsyth County sheriff's deputies and a corrections department official, according to Herrick. Officials at the Forsyth County jail said she was charged with harboring a fugitive and aiding and abetting an escaped felon.
by CNB