Opinion ID: 1659824
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: facts

Text: Ken Strickland and David Duplantis escaped from the Lauderdale County Jail on June 14, 1991, and were still at large on June 16, 1991. Ruth Ann Dean, who lived about a quarter of a mile from the house Charlene Thrash rented in Chunky, became concerned when she read in the Meridian Star on June 16, 1991, that the pair had escaped from the Lauderdale County Jail. [1] Dean's concern was prompted by the fact that Strickland's mother had previously rented the same house now rented by Charlene; Dean called Gary Thrash, Charlene's ex-husband, just after 10:00 a.m. on June 16, a Sunday, and asked him to check on the house. When Gary Thrash failed to answer his pager on the afternoon of June 16, Robert Strickland, Gary's boss, asked his buddy, off-duty Deputy Sheriff Ron Davis, to accompany him to Charlene's house. Upon arriving at the house Davis and Strickland found a Nissan pickup owner's manual and Gary Thrash's glasses case in the driveway. Davis and Strickland each went to a different side of the house at that point, knocking and calling Gary's name, to no avail. Davis then went back to the rear door of the house, which was unlocked, and started into the house, where he was met by a dog. Davis called to Strickland, who identified the dog as Gary's, and the two men conferred for a moment before Davis entered the house again. When he entered the house, Davis passed through the kitchen, proceeded into the living room, where he saw no one, and looked into an empty bedroom. Davis continued to a room adjacent to the bathroom and pushed the door open with his foot. As the door came open Davis saw the body and the blood on the floor there. Startled, Davis backed away and returned to the rear door of the house where Strickland was waiting for him. Davis told Strickland he thought he'd found Gary, but he needed to go back to be sure. The body was that of Gary Thrash, with a pool of blood about his head and the pockets of his shorts pulled inside out. Davis and Strickland then left the house, secured it, and called for law enforcement and ambulance personnel, the Mississippi Crime Lab, and the coroner. One of the burglar bars in the east window of the bedroom where Gary Thrash's body was found had been cut and bent out, providing access to the house. Strickland and Duplantis had been in Charlene Thrash's house, as established by fingerprint and other evidence properly admitted at trial. After their stay at the Thrash house, Strickland and Duplantis traveled to Tennessee, where they were arrested by Tennessee authorities on charges unrelated to Gary Thrash's death. Mississippi authorities were then sent to Tennessee to question the pair, at which time Duplantis gave an oral statement regarding Gary Thrash's death.