Kidnapped clerk found (bad) - Texas

[dukalmighty]

Texas authorities say body is abducted clerk By ANABELLE GARAY, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 17, 1:03 PM ET



A body found in a remote area was been identified as the clerk whose abduction from a store in a small North Texas town was recorded by security cameras, authorities said Sunday.

Mindy Daffern, 46, had been missing since Friday from the store her family owns in the city of Scotland, 130 miles northwest of Dallas. Surveillance camera videotape showed her being confronted at gunpoint by an unmasked man who walked her outside the store.

A man suspected in the abduction led investigators to the body Saturday and Texas Rangers confirmed it was Daffern, Archer County Sheriff Ed Daniels said Sunday.

Wallace Bowman Jr., 30, of Bowie, was being held on charges of aggravated robbery and kidnapping and Daniels said he is expected to be charged with capital murder. His bail was set at $3 million.

Bowman did not yet have an attorney to speak for him, Daniels said.

Daffern's body was found in a remote area near the town of Sunset in neighboring Montague County. Investigators were awaiting on an autopsy report, Daniels said.

"She was just a down to earth, good person," he said. They're a very close-knit family and of course it's just completely devastated the family."

Video from one store camera showed a man casually walking into the store and handing Daffern a cup, then pulling out a handgun and pointing it at her face.

A second camera showed the gunman walking her out of the store. Daffern was seen handing the cup back to the map, who sipped from it while holding the gun on her with his other hand. Daffern had her hands up and appeared to plead with the man. Video from a third camera showed a sport utility vehicle leaving store parking lot.

On the video, the gunman showed no apparent concern about appearing on camera and his face was clearly visible.

"I'm not sure he realized those were cameras, I don't know," Daniels said. "I haven't talked to him, I don't know what he was thinking at that point."

Bowie police began searching for Bowman after recognizing him on the video. On Saturday, police found an SUV matching the vehicle on the video at a motel about 40 miles away, Daniels said.

Authorities found Bowman at the motel Saturday morning. He was unarmed and the weapon used in the crime has not been found, Daniels said.

He initially told authorities he'd let Daffern out of the vehicle at a rural road in Archer County and that she'd run across a field, the sheriff said. "There was nothing in that field to indicate she'd ever been there," Daniels said.

Court records show Bowman was sentenced in 1997 to seven years for aggravated sexual assault and failed to register as a sex offender in 2004. Bowman was placed on probation after being convicted for burglary in 1996, according to court records.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Bark'n]

Story after story after story.... day in and day out... I'm sick of it!

Burglary in '96, Ag Sex Assault in '97, and failed to register in '04. Now kidnapping, armed criminal action, presumed sexual assault and murder in '08! I wonder what else he's done that he hasn't been caught for?

Scumbag seen on video abducting her and led cops to body... He need to go directly to the head of the line and be injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs and QUIT WASTING MY FRIGGON OXYGEN!

Society has a whole should expect NO Mercy for these scumbags!

[Hopyard]

Another example of a deserving soul; deserving of the needle.

And, the story is a warning to folks to not go with abductors even at the risk of being shot on the spot.

The end result is going to be the same. At least someone might have found a wounded clerk on the store floor and some help might have been forthcoming. Fighting back while in the store might have saved her life. Leaving with the abductor sealed her fate.

[Sig 210]

An idiot of a judge saw fit to give this scumbag a light sentence for aggravated sexual assault. Otherwise the puke would still be serving time.

[Supertac45]

Time for the needle. Should have been shot on the spot by the victim.

[aphophas]

Absolute vermin human debris. I agree with the prior posts, death should have already been applied to this POS.

[msgt/ret]

Another example of our “catch and release” judicial system, until criminals are held fully accountable for their actions stories like this will continue.

[Hopyard]

An idiot of a judge saw fit to give this scumbag a light sentence for aggravated sexual assault. Otherwise the puke would still be serving time.

Don't now the specifics of this case, but in Texas, sentences are decided by juries. Judges have little to do with it unless the case never goes to trial due to a guilty plea; and I'm uncertain if a jury is needed for sentencing in that situation.

Judges here are also elected. So, it is not likely that the guy was out because a judge was lenient.

I don't know why the guy was out; but the point is that until I know more, I'd not rush to blame judges.

The sentencing range available for most crimes is quite large and jurors (in my limited experience) are excluded from the jury if they can not consider the full range of punishment, which might be anywhere from 5 years to life; as an example, for attempted rape.
(A case where I was called to jury service but not picked, because I didn't think 99 years was something to consider for the circumstances of the crime.)

What I am saying is, all jurors go in at least willing to give the max. If this creep got less, it was probably our fellow citizens who made the decision.

And ultimately, the blame lies with the perp. He did the act. Not the judge in a previous case and not the jurors in a previous case. At worst, they mis-understood that the guy was beyond redemption.

[edr9x23super]

What a tragedy; it reminds me of a conversation I had the other day with Judge Steven Hilbig, who is my Mom and Dads' next door neighbor. back in the '90s he was the DA here in San Antonio and prosecuted a criminal who had his wife murdered by a hit man and was sent up the river. Originally, DA Hilbig had sought Capital punishment but the jury was unwilling to go for it.

The result: The murderer went on to become one of the infamous "texas seven" that escaped from the prison down in Kenedy, Texas, and ended up being the man who murdered a Fort Worth police officer. This piece of garbage was put to death earlier this week for that crime. Judge Hilbig swore up and down that if the jury had come back with a death penalty, that individual would never have escaped and been able to murder that policeman in Fort Worth, because he would have been on Death Row, which is exclusively solitary confinement while awaiting commission of their sentence.

Yet another reason to end all catch and release programs....

[crankinNM]

I hated to see her walk out with this dirt.

Never go with them.

Take a bullet if you have to, but never go with them.

[P7fanatic]

Story after story after story.... day in and day out... I'm sick of it!

Scumbag seen on video abducting her and led cops to body... He need to go directly to the head of the line and be injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs and QUIT WASTING MY FRIGGON OXYGEN!

Totally agree.
And there are people out there defending these people's right to continue breathing up our oxygen.
They are the lowest scum of the earth. I say draw and quarter him on national t.v.
Oh, but wait, we can't do that. The liberals on our SCOTUS have ruled that the murderers pain and suffering is more important than the pain and suffering of their victims. In that case, bring back the Guillotine.

[retsupt99]

Story after story after story.... day in and day out... I'm sick of it!

Burglary in '96, Ag Sex Assault in '97, and failed to register in '04. Now kidnapping, armed criminal action, presumed sexual assault and murder in '08! I wonder what else he's done that he hasn't been caught for?

Scumbag seen on video abducting her and led cops to body... He need to go directly to the head of the line and be injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs and QUIT WASTING MY FRIGGON OXYGEN!

Society has a whole should expect NO Mercy for these scumbags!

I couldn't agree more. I too, am sick of the 'criminal injustice system'. Time for an 'dirtbag cleansing'...

Stay armed......stay safe!

[FN1910]

I am not in favor of capital punishment as a form of punishment/revenge but rather as a form of ridding the world of those who do not deserve to be part of society. In this case he has proven that he cannot get along with the rest of the world so he should be laid to rest. Just after he is drawn and quartered.