THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040604
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
The trail of evidence that led to escaped murderer Thomas L. Bonney started with a drugstore receipt found Monday and ended with a sighting by a convenience store clerk shortly before his arrest Tuesday night.
But even before clues began pointing to Ocean View, police were convinced Bonney had chosen Hampton Roads as his place to run after Friday's escape from Raleigh's Central Prison.
``Hampton Roads was always a target area because of the prisoner's history and because he has family in the area,'' said a North Carolina law enforcement officer involved in the search. ``Traditionally, escapees tend to go where they feel safe and comfortable.''
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation gave Virginia State Police an important clue Monday when they discovered a receipt from a Revco store in the car that was recovered in Waynesboro, Va. The receipt is believed to have indicated that the escapees passed through Hampton Roads and possibly Ocean View. There is a Revco store in the Ocean View Shopping Center within two miles of where Bonney was captured.
Customers spotted the bearded, gray-haired Bonney at an Ocean View McDonald's over the weekend, but did not identify him as the fugitive.
``When I saw him I told my friend that Christmas must be early because here comes Santa Claus,'' said Florence McCoy of Ocean View, who eats breakfast at the McDonald's every day.
Bonney also visited the Forest Lawn Cemetery graves of his mother and daughter in Norfolk.
As reports that Bonney was wandering around the area began piling up, police visited area businesses to pass out pictures of the escaped murderer. When the pictures were distributed, numerous people who deal with the public confirmed that they had seen Bonney.
But it wasn't until a clerk at a 7-Eleven on Ocean View Avenue reported seeing Bonney early Tuesday night that the state police fugitive squad was able to make an arrest.
Police found Bonney walking toward the water off Willoughby Spit under an Interstate 64 overpass on 13th View Street, less than a mile from the 7-Eleven. He was captured about 9:30 p.m Tuesday.
The quick capture of Bonney by the Virginia State Police brought praise from their counterparts in North Carolina.
``They did an excellent job in the pursuit of Bonney,'' said Ron Keane, an agent with North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation in Raleigh. ``Our hats are off to them.''
Bonney waived extradition during a hearing Wednesday morning. At 8 p.m. he left Norfolk City Jail with North Carolina officials on his way back to Raleigh.
The capture ended Bonney's first taste of freedom since his conviction in 1988 for shooting his daughter 27 times. Bonney was sentenced to death by a North Carolina court, but that sentence was overturned in 1991. Bonney was waiting to be sentenced again when he slid down a prison garbage chute to freedom Friday morning.
He and fellow escapee James Stromer, 48, went from the chute into a garbage compactor that carried them to a Raleigh-area landfill, where they were dumped along with the compactor's trash. They made their way to a nearby Jiffy Lube, stole a car and drove to Hampton Roads. Stromer dropped off Bonney in Ocean View.
Authorities believe Stromer then left the region. The car was found Sunday night in a remote area of Waynesboro, along with a license plate stolen from Virginia Beach.
Lab tests confirmed on Tuesday that blood found in the car belongs to one of the escapees, a police source said.
Police say that Stromer was spotted Tuesday in Beckley, W.Va., and is believed to be headed west. He has relatives in Iowa and is known to have called them asking for money soon after he escaped.
A press release was issued Wednesday by law enforcement authorities in Beckley asking for the public's help in capturing Stromer.
``We did that to saturate the area,'' a North Carolina investigator said. ``Our trump card played out and we now are going to see about flushing him out.''
Stromer, a former lecturer at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., began serving a life sentence in 1993 for convictions of rape, burglary and kidnapping. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color map by JOHN CASERTA
[Trail of Thomas Bonney]
For copy of map, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: PRISON ESCAPE MURDER
by CNB