Victim's Mom Dismayed by Texas Jail Escape
Feb. 4, 2002 -- Gail Fulton's 16-year-old daughter was stolen away in the October night more than five years ago. Now the same men who took her daughter's life run free while Fulton prays for closure.
Two of the three men convicted in her daughter's death broke out of jail last week.
Fulton said their escape brings back memories of the day her daughter, Heather Rich, was found dead, shot in the back and head nine times with a shotgun, her body dumped at a remote bridge. Now Fulton fears the men will strike again.
"These are murderers, cold-blooded murderers. They will kill again," Fulton said on Good Morning America. "We're very concerned, not only about the public, but about the people that are having to search, the men and women that are part of the police force."
Three students from Rich's Waurika, Okla., high school — Curtis Gambill, Joshua Bagwell and Randy Wood — were convicted in the cheerleader's death and sent to prison for life. When ABCNEWS' Cynthia McFadden talked to Gambill in a 1998 jailhouse interview, the convicted killer had already made one unsuccessful attempt to escape from jail and vowed to keep on trying.
"Yes, this is nothing … because I'm mentally strong, know what I'm saying?" Gambill said. "Can't keep me here forever."
Made Good on His Word
Now Gambill, 24, seems to have made good on his word. He and Bagwell, 23, are two of the four Texas escapees who fled a Montague County jail on Jan. 28, after overpowering a guard and stealing her Geo Tracker.
The other two escapees, Chrystal Gale Soto, 22, and Charles Jordan, 30, were facing capital murder charges in the deaths of an elderly Texas couple.
The manhunt for the escapees includes the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Texas Rangers and Oklahoma's State Bureau of Investigation and its Highway Patrol.
Special agent Dan Defenbaugh of the Dallas FBI office said authorities aren't getting a lot of tips from the public. "As of Friday night we had roughly 350 leads — as of this morning, only 422," he said on Good Morning America. "Out of those, only about two percent of them are from individuals calling in." Authorities are asking anyone who spots the escapees to call a tip line — 800-737-8143.
Trail of Clues
The trail heated up over the weekend. Investigators matched Bagwell's fingerprints to those found in a burglarized home in Terral, Okla., Gambill's home town. Police also found that two of the beds in the burglarized home had been slept in, clothing and food was missing, and cigarette butts had been put out on coasters.
Authorities also located a flatbed truck that had been stolen in nearby Ryan, Okla., on Friday. They believe the fugitives might have stolen the truck and abandoned it. A .22-caliber rifle stolen with the truck has not been found.
A Night of Drinking and Sex
The prison escape has brought the story of the slain cheerleader back into the news.
On Oct. 2, 1996, Rich had snuck out of her house in Waurika and met the three boys at Bagwell's trailer. All were drinking heavily and at least two of the boys had sex with Rich, who, according to Wood's testimony, was "nearly passed out." The boys became concerned that Rich would accuse them of rape, Wood testified, and drove her across the state line to Texas, where they killed her with a shotgun.