THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220308
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Geoffrey Alan Ward, who 10 years ago confessed to a rape and murder spree in which he was not even a suspect, escaped from a maximum security prison near Richmond Wednesday.
Ward, 38, was serving eight life terms plus 140 years for raping and murdering a woman and a girl in Norfolk in 1984 and was ineligible for parole. He was reported missing from the Powhatan Correctional Center early Wednesday morning, according to Amy Miller, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
Miller refused to divulge how Ward escaped from the prison, which is part of a massive corrections complex about 20 miles west of Richmond. The incident, she said, is under investigation.
Although the Goochland County Sheriff was told of the escape at about 8:44 a.m., the public wasn't notified until after 11 a.m. Concerned that Ward may have been hiding in the area, the Powhatan County Sheriff's Department asked schools not to release any children who live near the prison until their parents came to get them.
By evening, more than 200 corrections officers, state troopers and local law enforcement officers were searching for Ward.
``Our first priority is to catch this guy,'' said Department of Public Safety spokesman Bill Cimino.
``They have dogs out there, they've established roadblocks, and they're concentrating on areas based on the dogs and some sightings. We've had a lot of leads and we've been following up on them.''
Ward, a Massachusetts native, joined the Navy and moved to Norfolk in the 1970s, then found work as a welder at Norshipco. He married in 1978, was laid off in 1980, and worked a series of temporary jobs to support his two baby daughters. His marriage fell apart in March 1984 and he moved back to Gardner, Mass., about six months later.
In January 1986, he came back to Norfolk. After spending one night in a motel, he went to the police department's 2nd Precinct, where he told officers he had been born again and that he needed to clear his conscience and confess to his crimes.
Among those crimes:
A June 1983 break-in during which he used a hammer to shatter the skull of a sleeping man.
A July 1983 break-in during which he entered a woman's home and raped her.
The Aug. 1, 1984, abduction, rape and murder of 38-year-old Sunee Doe, a native of Thailand and Navy wife whom Ward found walking home along Ocean View Avenue. Ward put a knife to her throat, took her home, raped her and then strangled her with guitar string.
The Aug. 13, 1984, abduction, rape and murder of 14-year-old Sonya Leigh Peters, a band majorette at Ruffner Junior High School. Ward attacked Peters as she walked home from a friend's house, took her to his home and strangled her with guitar string.
Ward was charged with 18 felonies. Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk Al Teich, then a criminal defense attorney, was appointed to represent him.
``The police were kind of shocked,'' Teich recalled Wednesday. ``I don't think they even believed him until he took them to some of the crime scenes and showed them some things (he had stolen from his victims).''
Police Cpl. Ralph Hamlin, who was involved in the investigation, said Wednesday that ``there's no way to ever know'' if Ward would have become a suspect or been caught if he hadn't confessed.
When Teich and his co-counsel, James Broccoletti, went to see Ward in the Norfolk City Jail, ``he said, `I certainly feel sorry for you guys because there's nothing you can do for me. I did it. And I gave all the statements,' '' Teich said.
Ward pleaded guilty in August 1986, and was spared the death penalty by then-Circuit Judge John Winston, in part, Teich said, because his sentence made him ineligible for parole. He was sentenced in January 1987.
``And now he's out,'' said Teich. ``You don't think of those things happening.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Geoffrey Alan Ward
KEYWORDS: ESCAPED PRISONER by CNB