Prison Garb, Shoes Found in Manhunt for Texas Fugitives
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Discarded jail clothing, clumps of black hair and fingerprints from a fugitive were found in a burglarized house by authorities searching for two convicted murderers and two murder suspects who escaped from a Texas jail.
The evidence was discovered Sunday in the weekend house of an Oklahoma City man, Jefferson County Sheriff Stanley Barnes said.
By midday Monday, one week after the breakout, there was no sign of the escapees — two convicted of killing a high school cheerleader and two awaiting trial in another killing.
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One of the four, Chrystal Soto, 22, apparently cut her hair at the home, leaving black locks with the clothing.
"She has cut it short enough that she might be trying to pass as a male," said Kym Koch, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The shoes and a black-and-white jumpsuit came from the Texas jail, and the shoes bore Soto's name, said Jefferson County Undersheriff Martin Matney.
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Investigators also discovered two beds that had been slept in, cigarette butts in coasters and eaten food. Fingerprints found in the house in Terral, in southern Oklahoma, were matched to fugitive Joshua Bagwell, 23.
The discovery led investigators to believe the four fugitives traveled into Oklahoma together after their escape.
Matney said he believes Curtis Gambill, 24, and Bagwell, 23, are still in southern Oklahoma because they know the area and have relatives there.
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Gambill broke into the same house when he was 10, the undersheriff said. Gambill knew that the owner of the house only used it on weekends, Matney said.
"When the weekend came up, they knew it was time to leave," he said.
Soto and Charles Jordan, 30, — both of Bowie, Texas — might have split from the other two in a flatbed truck that was taken Friday from a house in the nearby town of Ryan, Matney said.
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The truck was found Saturday about 40 miles away, but a .22-caliber rifle also taken from the house had not been recovered by Sunday.
The fugitives fled the Montague County Jail last Monday after two of them overpowered a guard with a homemade knife.