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| Inmate on furlough fled area after alleged attack |
| By The Alton Telegraph |
| Published: 08/01/2005 |
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Thanks in part to a little detective work by a jailer, the Jersey County (Ill.) Sheriff's Department has tracked down a furloughed inmate who had fled the area after an alleged attack on his wife and children. Jersey County Sheriff Paul Cunningham said his officers located Joseph L. Gettings, 37, of Dow, in North Carolina last Monday after they received a small clue as to his whereabouts. "We had gotten the name of a woman who he was thought to be staying with, but all we had was the first name," he said. Kevin Ayres, corrections officer at the Jersey County Jail, took it from there, going through the jail's mail logs and sifting through the names of people Gettings had sent letters to while he was being held there. "(Ayres) found this woman's name and address in the mail logs and told us that there was a good chance Mr. Gettings was in North Carolina with her," Cunningham said. "Sure enough, that's where he was." The sheriff said his department obtained a federal warrant for Gettings for unlawful fleeing to avoid prosecution. His officers then contacted the Franklin County, N.C., Sheriff's Department last Monday and asked them to visit the woman's house to see if Gettings was staying there. When they arrived, they found Gettings, arrested him and took him into custody at the Franklin County Jail. "We're in the process of extraditing him now," he said. "Right now he's got a court date in North Carolina on Aug. 8 on a fugitive warrant, but if he agrees to waive extradition that will be dropped and he'll come back here to face the music." Gettings had been in jail awaiting shipment to the Illinois Department of Corrections to begin a six-year term on a conviction for unlawful delivery of a controlled substance. He was furloughed from the Jersey County Jail on July 17 to await surgery on his foot. The day of the furlough, Gettings allegedly attacked his wife and their three children and then led sheriff's deputies, officers from the Grafton Police Department, the Illinois State Police and the Illinois Department of Conservation Police on a chase from Dow to near Grafton. |
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