THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030449
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Escaped murderer Thomas L. Bonney was captured Tuesday night under a highway overpass in Willoughby Spit, ending a five-day manhunt for the former Chesapeake auto parts salvager who was convicted in 1988 of shooting his daughter 27 times.
Bonney was taken into custody by Virginia State Police investigators about 9:30 p.m. while he was walking toward Willoughby Bay under an Interstate 64 overpass near 13th View Street.
Bonney, 51, put up no resistance and was carrying no weapons, said state police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame.
Van Dame said Bonney, who was diagnosed with a multiple-personality disorder in 1991, appeared extremely disoriented when police found him wandering aimlessly near the water. Bonney was carrying asthma medicine and pictures of his family. He was wearing a mechanic's shirt with the name Robert scripted across the front pocket.
``The best thing I can say is that he is appearing not to remember a whole lot, including who he might be,'' said Phil Foster, assistant special agent in charge for the state police.
Several witnesses tipped police Tuesday that they had seen Bonney for at least two days in Ocean View, according to someone close to the investigation. The witnesses were responding to pleas made through the media for help in locating Bonney.
Bonney was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital so doctors could examine lacerations that officials believe he may have suffered when he and another prisoner slid down a garbage chute and into a trash compactor at Central Prison in Raleigh on Friday morning. If his injuries proved not to be serious, Van Dame said, Bonney was to spend the night at Norfolk City Jail before his arraignment in court today.
Still at large is Bonney's fellow escapee, 48-year-old James Stromer, who was serving a life sentence for rape, burglary and kidnapping when he and Bonney escaped.
Police said the men stole a car soon after their escape near a Raleigh-area landfill and drove to Hampton Roads, where Stromer is believed to have dropped off Bonney.
The stolen car, a 1987 Oldsmobile, and a license plate stolen in Virginia Beach were discovered Sunday night in a remote area of Waynesboro, Va.
Bonney was sentenced to death by a North Carolina court in 1988, but that sentence was overturned in 1991 when at least one psychiatrist called Bonney's mental condition incapacitating. He was awaiting resentencing at the time of the escape Friday.
Stromer is trained in engineering and construction management and had been a lecturer at East Carolina University before his convictions. Police believe Stromer may have gone to West Virginia after he abandoned the stolen car in Waynesboro.
Although the search on Tuesday was being directed at both men, police apparently had more leads on Bonney's whereabouts and had several stakeouts set up in Hampton Roads, where Bonney still has family.
Late Tuesday afternoon, officers with the Virginia State Police used a canine unit to search a private residence in the 900 block of Waters Drive in the Great Bridge area of Chesapeake. The state police had been tipped that Bonney might be there because he had once lived in an abandoned bus at the back of the property. The property also was once the location of a junkyard where Bonney was employed.
The officers found nothing to indicate that Bonney had been at the residence, Van Dame said.
Another report Tuesday indicated that the grave of Bonney's daughter had been tampered with and was being watched by law enforcement authorities.
Friday morning's daring escape started in the prison garbage chute. From the chute the men went into a garbage compactor truck at the 1,084-inmate maximum security prison in downtown Raleigh. The truck is believed to have transported the two men to a Raleigh-area landfill, where they were dumped along with the truck's garbage. From there the men are thought to have walked to a nearby Jiffy Lube where they stole the Oldsmobile.
Prison officials said Monday that an investigation is under way to determine how the men escaped and why their disappearance went undetected for most of Friday. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
IAN MARTIN/Staff
Thomas L. Bonney, taken into custody Tuesday night, appeared
disoriented when police found him wandering by Willoughby Bay in
Norfolk. He was taken to a Norfolk hospital for treat-ment of cuts
he may have suffered when he escaped through a trash chute from a
Raleigh prison.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING ESCAPED PRISONER by CNB