Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 30, 1994                   TAG: 9409300048
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WOMAN IDENTIFIES ESCAPEE AS MAN WHO ABDUCTED HER

Roger Lee Jones, 32, escaped the McDowell County (W.Va.) Correctional Facility in Welch on Monday, police said. His trial is scheduled to start next Tuesday.

Jones was last heard of Tuesday, when police said he had flagged down a Mercer County, W.Va., woman, pulled a knife and made her drive him to Virginia.

The woman, who eventually escaped, identified Jones from police photographs, authorities said.

Police found the car in Tazewell County on Wednesday morning, Beavers said. Tazewell is about 15 miles south of Welch and about 80 miles west of Roanoke, where Jones' wife had been living just before her boyfriend's death.

``The thing you have to understand about Mr. Jones is he was getting ready to go to trial on one murder charge, kidnapping and sexual assault,'' said sheriff's Capt. Pete Beavers.

``In thinking of his past record and knowing his trial date was short in coming, we feel like he's a very desperate person.''

His wife had filed two domestic violence petitions against Jones prior to her rape, but no action had been taken, officials said.

``She said she was so afraid of him, she was afraid to come to Welch to talk to her attorney in the daytime,'' Prosecutor Sid Bell said just after Jones was arrested last year.

Police used dogs and helicopters in the search but had no solid leads, Beavers said.

``We have some places in mind and we've notified local authorities in different areas to be on the lookout,'' Beavers said. ``But what we're going to have to do until we have a sighting is keep turning every stone.''

Police said Jones fatally shot Douglas Bailey, 30, of Coalwood, W.Va., last November at the Berwind, W.Va., home of Jones' sister-in-law. Jones then held his estranged wife, sister-in-law and his two stepdaughters at gunpoint, police said. The sister-in-law and stepdaughters escaped through a back door soon after police arrived.

Police said Jones locked himself in the bathroom with his wife for about three hours and raped her before he threw his gun out a window and surrendered.

Jones had been held in the jail pending his trial on eight felony charges, including charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and first-degree sexual assault. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Jones was being escorted to a segregation cell when he bolted from officers and ran out a kitchen door that was unlocked because a food delivery was being made, Beavers said. He then ran into the town of Welch, where he eluded police, Beavers said.

Beavers said Jones' wife moved back to McDowell County after her estranged husband's arrest.

``We escorted her children home from school the day of the escape and once they were home, she immediately left the area,'' he said. ``I'm sure she does have a fear for her well-being.''

Jones, of Coalwood, is 6-feet-1 and of medium build. He has blue eyes, reddish brown hair, a mustache and a tattoo on one arm that says ``Roger,'' Beavers said.