Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994 TAG: 9403060137
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But a little more than a week after he was charged in a two-state crime spree, he hasn't been found.
"I personally believe that he very well could be in this area," said Montgomery County Deputy Chief Dan Haga.
Hampton took off from Interstate 81's Ironto rest stop on Feb. 24 in a stolen car as police filed charges against him. Hampton was charged in West Virginia and Virginia in a series of incidents involving rape, abduction and assault.
"We're still looking for him, and anything we hear in terms of people thinking they see him, we check it out," said Lt. James Epperly of the Blacksburg Police Department.
Hampton was last seen driving north on I-81 in a stolen white 1990 Oldsmobile with Maryland handicapped tags.
According to police, Hampton is a suspect in an auto theft, rape and abduction in Beckley, W.Va., on Feb. 23. He also is suspected in the beating of an elderly McCoy man the next day.
Police think Hampton found his way to Beckley after learning of a grand jury indictment against him in the November beating of a Pulaski County man.
Early last week, the Sheriff's Department checked out a sighting of the white Oldsmobile near the Radford Travel Center on Virginia 177. "It was not there when we got there," said Haga.
"It seems everything that happens in Montgomery County, people are assuming Mr. Hampton is responsible for it," said Haga.
Among those acts is last week's theft of a red, 1991 Dodge Dakota pickup truck, four handguns, two rifles, two shotguns and other items from a home located down the street from one of Hampton's acquaintances, according to police. The truck was later recovered.
by CNB