Richmond Times Dispatch
Copyright 2007 Richmond Times Dispatch
RICHMOND, Va. — Escaped convict Alonzo E. Logan has been captured in an abandoned house in Richmond, and authorities said he had help in his life on the lam.
A police convoy escorted an ambulance that rushed Logan to VCU Medical Center shortly before 8:30 this morning.
Authorities went to the 5300 block of Salem Street in the Fulton Hill neighborhood overnight and found Logan as a result of an investigation led by U.S. marshals.
Officials told The Times-Dispatch that the location where Logan was found was just a few blocks from his mother’s home on Vinton Street, also in Fulton Hill, and was almost across the street from another relative’s home.
Authorities found clothing, including three coats, and money among the items in the attic.
“Clearly, he had some help,” Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe said at the scene after Logan was rushed to the hospital . “There was a system of helping him. We are identifying those individuals, and we anticipate charges being placed, both locally and federally.”
Monroe said Logan did not speak when he was taken into custody.
“I think the fight was out of him,” the chief said.
Logan was found laying on the floor in the attic of a house.
Police said Logan was believed to be suffering from hypothermia and was initially not responsive when U.S. marshals converged on the home in a pre-dawn strike.
Robert Fernandez of the U.S. Marshals Service said Logan, taken into custody shortly after 5 a.m., was found on an exposed electrical wire in the attic.
Fernandez said efforts to remove Logan from the home were delayed to allow utility crews to shut off electrcity to the area. He said Logan was brought out of an attic vent on a gurney and then slid down a ladder to the ground.
Logan, 41, escaped from the Dillwyn Correctional Center on Nov. 16. He was serving a 45-year sentence on multiple burglary and larceny charges as well as charges stemming from a 2001 escape from Charles City County authorities.
Officials said Logan left a note in his cell at Dillwyn suggesting that he was suicidal and had no intentions of returning to prison.
The career criminal had been sighted in various locations in recent weeks in Charles City County, Richmond and eastern Henrico County. All the sightings occurred in areas he was known to frequent.
After authorities were unable to capture him, they scaled back their foot search and focused more on tracking investigative leads.
Monroe said the apprehension was due to the work by the Metro Richmond Fugitive Task Force, spearheaded by the U.S. Marshals Service and investigators from Richmond and other local law-enforcement agencies.
The Marshals Service obtained a federal fugitive warrant for Logan.
Logan was in the attic of a one-story bungalow that police said had been abandoned for some time. It borders a patch of woods behind it and is located in a neighborhood of modest single-family homes.
Fernandez said Logan was unarmed and still bore wounds and cuts on his hands, apparently suffered during his escape. He said there was no evidence of food in the abandoned home.
Fernandez indicated that tips about Logan’s location may have come from Logan’s family members, a family that he described as “a huge, extended family.”
Some were more cooperative than others, said Fernandez.