Ohio state troopers chase suspected escapee

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- State troopers searched street by street Tuesday for one of two Kentucky jail escapees suspected in a two-state crime spree in which one kidnapping victim remained missing.

Officers combed areas near a rest stop where a man believed to be Chadrick Fulks fled from state troopers Monday night. Authorities believed the car he was driving was damaged crossing a highway median to avoid capture.

Fulks, 25, and L. Branden Basham, 21, escaped Nov. 4 from the Hopkins County jail in western Kentucky. They are suspected of abducting a 44-year-old South Carolina woman, who has not been found, and a 42-year-old Kentucky man, who escaped after being tied to a tree and abandoned.

Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C., vanished Thursday from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, S.C.

Ohio troopers said they believe they spotted Fulks late Monday sleeping in a blue BMW parked in a rest area in Marion County, in north-central Ohio.

The man sped off when the trooper ordered him out of the car and nearly ran over another officer. The pursuit was halted to make sure the officer was OK.

"Our trooper did not see anyone else in the car but we don't know if there were possible victims or abductions inside the trunk," Ohio State Patrol spokesman Lt. Gary Lewis said.

Basham was arrested Sunday after allegedly trying to hijack a car from a woman and her 15-year-old daughter at an Ashland, Ky., mall. After a foot chase during which Basham and an officer exchanged gunfire, police found him in the Ohio River.

Basham was being held on $2 million bond on charges of attempted robbery, criminal attempt to commit murder on an officer and fleeing or eluding a police officer.

At the time of the escape, Basham was serving a five-year sentence for writing a bad check and Fulks was awaiting trial on robbery charges.

The two allegedly kidnapped James Hawkins of Hanson, Ky., and left him tied to a tree in Indiana on Nov. 6. Hawkins struggled for hours before freeing himself.