Oklahoma Woman Believed Kidnapped in 1994 Is Found .............................
Tue Apr 5, 2005 05:23 PM ET
By Ben Fenwick
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (Reuters) - A prison warden's wife believed to have been kidnapped by an escaped prisoner 10 years ago was found living with him at a Texas chicken farm and has been reunited with her husband, police said on Tuesday.
There were conflicting reports on whether Bobbi Parker, 42, had stayed voluntarily with accused kidnapper Randolph Dial, 60, but the FBI said it was treating the case as if she was a captive.
"We still consider it a kidnapping and we believe she was held against her will during that time. I'm not a psychologist, but from what I understand, she feared for the life of her family if she broke loose," said FBI spokesman Gary Johnson.
Parker and Dial, who was imprisoned at the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite, Oklahoma for a 1981 murder, suddenly disappeared on Aug. 30, 1994.
Dial was involved in a prison art program which Parker coordinated and spent time working on art projects at the home she shared with husband Randy Parker, police said.
He was a so-called "trusty" prisoner who had special privileges because it was believed he would not run away.
A tip to "America's Most Wanted" television show led police on Monday to the chicken farm in east Texas, where the woman and Dial were living in a mobile home.
Newton Johnson, the sheriff of Shelby County in Texas, told the Daily Oklahoman newspaper that Parker remained with Dial because she wanted to and wished to stay on the farm and continue raising chickens.
"As far as I know, she has no intention of leaving," the sheriff told the newspaper.
But on Tuesday, Dial was on his way to Oklahoma to face kidnapping charges, while Randy Parker, now the warden of a prison in Fort Supply, Oklahoma, went to Texas to reunite with his wife, the FBI said.
"She was reunited with her husband this morning. From what I understand it went extremely well," said Johnson.
A spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said Randy Parker would not comment on the case. |
