THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997 TAG: 9701080330
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: STAFF REPORTS
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 31 lines
Police and Pasquotank County sheriff's deputies are searching for a rape suspect who escaped from Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro Saturday.
Ricky McPherson of Elizabeth City was arrested after he allegedly raped, beat and cut a 72-year-old woman in her Greenleaf Street home Nov. 19.
McPherson was taken to Cherry Hospital, a mental health facility, after attempting suicide at the Albemarle District Jail, according to a press release from the Department of Human Resources in Raleigh.
McPherson, 27, was last seen wearing blue jeans, white tennis shoes and a blue state-issued shirt. He is a white male, 5 feet 10 inches tall and 143 pounds, with blue eyes, brown hair and a short beard and mustache.
According to the release, McPherson forced his way out of a door of the admissions ward when another patient entered. The door is normally locked.
``We take this matter very seriously, and we're conducting an internal review to further tighten our admission security for court-admitted patients,'' Cherry Hill Hospital Director J. Field Montgomery Jr. said in the release.
Police say McPherson will likely return to Elizabeth City.
``It's a matter of when,'' said Capt. Bill Williams, interim chief of the Elizabeth City Police Department. ``We're checking every source we've got.''
``We've got some feelers out, and we've contacted sources who helped us locate him before,'' said Pasquotank County Sheriff Randy Cartwright. ``We consider him dangerous.''