Posse Closes in on Jail Escapee; Hostage Found
A sheriff’s deputy taken hostage by an armed jail escapee was found unharmed Thursday night, and hundreds of searchers were reported closing in on the convict known as “Animal.”
After the deputy, Rosalie Williams, 24, was found, Jerry Walter McFadden, a convicted sex offender, was believed to be on foot in the woods in nearby Big Sandy, said the Upshur County Sheriff’s Department.
Mike Cox, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety in Austin, said he was told officers were closing in on McFadden, who was awaiting trial for murder.
Department of Corrections guards on horseback were joined in the search by officials from the Department of Wildlife and the Forestry Service, local residents and local constables.
McFadden, 38, was being taken to the lobby of the Upshur County Jail to make a telephone call when he escaped and abducted Williams, said Sheriff Dale Jewkes.
McFadden faced a July 28 trial on charges of aggravated assault and robbery. He also is charged with capital murder in the slaying of Suzanne Harrison, 18, who was killed in May.
Authorities said McFadden was paroled from a Texas prison in 1985 after serving a sentence for sexual assault.
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