Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993 TAG: 9308270272
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN and LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PRICES FORK LENGTH: Long
As the media - including a satellite truck from a television station in Washington - congregated at a command post near Blacksburg, word spread of the search. But the truth often got distorted as stories passed from person to person.
One McCoy resident stopped by the command post and asked Montgomery County Sheriff Ken Phipps for an escort home. She'd heard that a Food Lion worker at Hethwood Square had been killed.
She was relieved to learn that wasn't true, but still wanted police to check her house once she learned the reason they were in the area.
Herman Bartlett Jr., Montgomery County's new school superintendent, also dropped by after his office began receiving calls suggesting the search was centered in the neighborhood of Prices Fork Elementary School.
Authorities have been searching for cousins Billy Jo Hottle, 20, and Craig Swick, 23, both of Grant County, W.Va., since they escaped from separate facilities earlier this month.
The manhunt heated up Monday after three people were killed in two incidents in West Virginia. Hottle and Swick are being sought for questioning in the homicides.
The search began to center on the Prices Fork Road area early Thursday after law enforcement officers spotted two men who matched the cousins' descriptions.
Hottle is described as being 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing about 120 pounds and having brown eyes and reddish brown hair. Swick is 5 feet 11 inches, 160 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.
At about 4:10 a.m. Thursday, Montgomery County Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Rakes spotted a man near the Prices Fork Research Center who matched Hottle's description. The man, who was wearing black shorts and an orange shirt, ran into a cornfield, Lt. O.P. Ramsey said.
About six minutes later, Ramsey said, a Blacksburg police officer saw a man using a pay telephone at Hethwood Square a short distance away. The man - who was wearing gray shorts and a white shirt - fit Swick's description.
When the man saw the Blacksburg police officer, he dropped the telephone receiver and jogged off, Ramsey said. He broke into a run when the officer used his car's public address system to order him to stop.
Dogs belonging to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and Bland Correctional Center were used throughout the day but no distinct tracks were found. Helicopters from Virginia and West Virginia state police also were used to search the areas of Prices Fork, Merrimac and McCoy.
"If they're looking for a place to lay low, they've picked a good spot," Ramsey said.
Authorities said not only does the rural Prices Fork area provide numerous hiding places, but the young men also may be able to blend in easily with Virginia Tech students who returned to campus this week.
Members of special response teams from Montgomery County, the state police and Virginia Tech worked into the night tracking down leads - without knowing whether they were legitimate spottings.
Residents reported seeing the men near McCoy Falls, then on Tall Oaks Drive and in other parts of the Blacksburg area. Late Thursday, a taxi driver told police he may have given one of the men a ride from Christiansburg to Washington Street near the Virginia Tech campus. And someone else reported that a nervous man at the Rose's store in University Mall was flashing a large amount of money and buying clothes.
The fugitives have led authorities across West Virginia and into Blacksburg on a sweeping trail marked by crime scenes and reported sightings.
"There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to their flight," said Dan Haga, chief deputy of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.
Hottle escaped from the Huttonsville Correctional Center on Aug. 5 and Swick escaped 10 days later from the Charleston Work Release Center, authorities said.
Police believe Hottle's girlfriend helped him escape, then let him hide in her Ansted, W.Va., home until he could pick up Swick as he walked away from the work release center.
Hottle's girlfriend, 21-year-old Bev Layton, has been charged with harboring a fugitive and aiding a prisoner's escape.
The search for Hottle and Swick intensified after the clerk of a 7-Eleven store in Mineral County, W.Va., near the Maryland border, was killed during a robbery late Sunday night or early Monday.
Karen J. Jeffrey, 33, was shot in the head and a small amount of money was taken from the store, which was not equipped with a surveillance camera.
Later that day, 40 miles south, a couple was found dead in their trailer in the small community of Cabins, W.Va., in Grant County.
A car belonging to the victims - 25-year-old Leon Miller and 27-year-old Donna Ours - was found by police Tuesday at Layton's home, 200 miles south in Fayette County.
Warrants were obtained by the Grant County Sheriff's Office Thursday charging each man with two counts of first-degree murder.
Sheriff John Leatherman said Layton also has been charged with being an accessory before the fact in connection with the killings and with grand larceny of a pickup truck - one of at least three stolen vehicles the men are believed to have used since their escape.
A .22-caliber handgun found in one of the cars is believed to be the weapon used to kill Miller and Ours, Leatherman said.
Fayette County Sheriff Bill Laird said the last confirmed sighting of the two was Tuesday afternoon, several hours after the car was found at Layton's home.
A hunter spotted the men on foot in a remote wooded area near Ansted, Laird said.
Since then, Fayette County has been the focus of an intense search involving tracking dogs, helicopters and more than 50 law enforcement officers.
Apart from Thursday's sighting in Blacksburg, "we've had no confirmed sightings outside our search area since Tuesday," Laird said.
As word of the manhunt spreads, authorities said, there have been dozens of reported sightings, but few firm leads.
"We've heard news that they've been sighted here and there," said Leatherman, the Grant County sheriff. "But at this point in time I'm not sure how much of it is true."
Until this week, the fugitives were not considered to be hardened or dangerous criminals.
Hottle, described as a "model inmate" by one jailer, was serving up to a 10-year sentence on grand larceny and conspiracy to commit grand larceny when he was paroled in 1991. He returned to prison in February of this year on another 10-year term for grand larceny and parole violations.
Swick was sentenced in May 1992 to two consecutive sentences of one to 15 years and one to 10 years on burglary and grand larceny charges.
Staff writer Michael Csollany, staff photographers Alan Kim and Keith Greene and The Associated Press provided information for this story.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB