THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 2, 1994 TAG: 9408020324
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, DAVE ADDIS AND DAVID POOLE, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines
Convicted murderer Thomas L. Bonney and a convicted rapist who once lectured at East Carolina University remained on the loose Monday night after a daring escape last week from a North Carolina prison that brought them at least for a short time to Hampton Roads.
Authorities said Monday they have few leads to follow from a remote wooded area in the north end of Waynesboro, Va., where a 1987 Oldsmobile Regency believed stolen by the two escaped convicts was discovered Sunday afternoon by a fisherman. A license plate stolen from a car owned by a resident of the Virginia Beach neighborhood of Carolanne Farms also was found nearby in a Waynesboro river.
Although a state police helicopter scanned the wooded areas surrounding Waynesboro on Monday afternoon, authorities were skeptical that the two escapees were still nearby.
``We are not searching the area because we have no place to search,'' said Philip Broadfoot, Waynesboro police chief. ``We don't know where the occupants went to.''
Lt. William Maki of the Waynesboro Police Department said there has been no report of another stolen car. But at least one person reported seeing a blue pickup truck bearing North Carolina plates on Sunday leaving the area where the car was discovered.
Residents of Waynesboro, a city of 18,500 that is 20 miles west of Charlottesville and near both the Shendandoah National Park and the George Washington National Forest, appeared to be heeding law enforcement warnings for caution.
``I'm keeping my doors locked and keeping my guns ready,'' said 81-year-old James Perry.
Broadfoot said investigators now believe that the 51-year-old Bonney, a former Chesapeake auto salvage dealer who shot his daughter 27 times, and 48-year-old James Stromer abandoned the Oldsmobile after driving it from Hampton Roads after their escape from Central Prison in Raleigh on Friday morning.
The escapees are believed to have driven the car from Raleigh to Virginia Beach, where they stole a license plate from a 1985 Buick Skylark owned by Oliver Rooks of Princess Anne Road in the Huntington area.
Rooks said Monday that he noticed and reported the missing front license plate on Sunday, and believes the plate was stolen either while the car was sitting in his driveway or while it was in a parking lot at Norfolk International Airport, where his wife works.
Bonney was convicted of brutally murdering his daughter in 1988 and sentenced to death. But in 1991, after he was diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder, Bonney's death sentence was overturned.
He was awaiting sentencing at Central Prison in Raleigh when he escaped.
Stromer began serving a life sentence in April of 1993 after being convicted of rape, kidnapping and burglary, according to the clerk's office in Pitt County, N.C. Stromer, with 18 years of education and training in both construction management and engineering, had been a member of the faculty at East Carolina University before his conviction.
On Sunday afternoon, 61-year-old Waynesboro resident Bill Graham discovered the escape car at the end of a rutted road leading to the South River near the outskirts of town.
About 300 yards away, Graham found the stolen Virginia Beach license plate in the river.
Graham said he realized he should report the car when he saw it had no plates.
``Just as soon as I saw there was no tags on it I got the hell out of there,'' Graham said.
Police Chief Broadfoot said the car was stolen at a Jiffy Lube in Raleigh, probably between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. Friday.
Blood was found on the car's glove box and an alert was issued by the Waynesboro Police Department Sunday night that said Bonney was injured and may be seeking medical attention. Hospitals and medical clinics in both North Carolina and Virginia have been alerted. The blood will be tested today at a Roanoke laboratory, police said.
Authorities would not say how they knew that Bonney and not Stromer was injured, but hinted that some information was being withheld to assist in the police investigation.
``There are some things we don't want these guys to read in the newspaper,'' said Patty McQuillan, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Correction. ``We want to get these guys.''
North Carolina investigators found a receipt from a Revco drug store in the car that was dated 7:34 p.m. Saturday. They would not say where the purchase was made.
Another police report indicated that one of the escapees had contacted relatives in Iowa, notifying them that he was in Virginia and needed money.
Authorities theorize that Bonney and Stromer slid down a prison garbage chute about 8:30 a.m. Friday. They believe the two escapees then rode in a garbage compactor to a landfill, about four miles from the prison, which is located in downtown Raleigh.
After stealing the Oldsmobile, Bonney and Stromer are believed to have driven along U.S. Route 1 on their way to Hampton Roads, McQuillan said.
After the stolen car was reported Sunday afternoon, two North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations officers went to Waynesboro. A North Carolina prison official left for Waynesboro on Monday morning, carrying fingerprints of the two escapees to be checked against prints found on the car.
DNA samples had been taken from both prisoners recently as part of a new program for the identification of criminals. Those samples could be checked against the blood stains found in the car in Waynesboro.
McQuillan said Stromer's training may have provided him with the technical knowledge to plan and execute the escape through the prison's garbage collection and disposal system.
The trash container that authorities believe carried the inmates to freedom has a crushing compactor blade, but it does not exert pressure on the contents until the container is mostly full.
Authorities speculate that Stromer could have known that the garbage load leaving Central Prison typically is a light load of styrofoam dinner trays used for maximum security prisoners, leaving safe space for potential escapees.
How Stromer and Bonney were allowed unsupervised access to the garbage chute is unknown, McQuillan said.
``That's what we want to find out,'' she said Monday.
Meanwhile, another investigation was launched Monday by prison officials to determine how Stromer's and Bonney's disappearance went undetected for most of Friday.
McQuillan said prison officials did not notify the Central Prison warden that Stromer was missing until 3:15 p.m., even though he did not report to his hospital job at 8:30 a.m.
At 3:15 p.m., McQuillan said, an immediate lockdown was ordered. That's when prison officials learned that Bonney also was missing, McQuillan said. Prison authorities then notified the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation of the double escape.
McQuillan said that it is not unusual for prisoners to be away from their duty stations at the huge 1,084-inmate Central Prison. Prisoner counts are made twice a day, in the morning and at night.
``But they still took too long before notifying the warden,'' McQuillan said. ``That part is under investigation.''
McQuillan said that initially authorities thought the two escapees may have been crushed by the compactor and dumped at the landfill. That search, she said, was abandoned on Monday. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
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KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING ESCAPED PRISONER by CNB