Gary Dale Cox's Hideaway Discovered
Maggie
May 5, 2001, 10:13PM
Felon's shack reveals odd array
of instruments and weapons
By JOHN W. GONZALEZ
KERRVILLE -- A suspected serial child abductor who took his own life when
police arrived at his secluded hideaway kept an array of duct tape and ropes to
bind his victims and may have been just minutes away from eluding capture,
authorities said today.
Gary Dale Cox had padlocked the ramshackle cabin Friday where he had been
staying for several months and had ordered his latest victim -- 11-year-old
Leah Henry, now safely back in Houston -- into the Mazda hatchback that he
repainted by hand the previous night.
The cluttered car contained a bizarre array of items: a stun gun, a generic
police-type badge, facial makeup and a fake nose. Beside the vehicle was a
large gasoline can.
Inside the hut and an adjoining travel trailer, investigators found recent
newspapers and chilling artifacts that Cox, 48, of Montgomery County, probably
used to restrain at least three captive girls since March.
"There is quite a bit of duct tape. That appears how he had taped them up and
kept them bound. There's some rope and a lot of other things that he used
inside there," said Kerr County Sheriff Randy Hierholzer.
With little elaboration, the sheriff said investigators believe Cox may have
been "semitorturing one of these little girls by using fire ants or things like
that."
Cox is suspected in two abductions prior to Leah's. Nykema Augustine, 9, was
abducted in San Antonio and Lisa Bruna, 11, was abducted in Slidell, La. They
were each held several days and later the were released and returned home
safely. The two girl's gave police descriptions of their abductors that closely
matched Cox's appearance.
Leah is expected to recount the details of her abduction to Houston Police
Department Juvenile Division investigators perhaps as early as this week said
John Cannon, a Houston police spokesman.
"These Juvenile Division investigators are highly trained and are experts with
kids who have been involved in crimes of this nature," Cannon said.
She will likely tell investigators, and a counselor if necessary, about her
brave dash to freedom upon the arrival of a deputy at the hunting camp Friday
morning.
The officer was sent there to check on a neighbor's report that a white
hatchback -- like the one shown in news accounts of Leah's disappearance -- had
been at the shack frequently.
When Sgt. David Billeiter arrived, he spotted only a red car with Missouri
plates but blocked its exit. Then, according to radio dispatches released
Saturday, it quickly became clear that neighbor Bob Taylor's hunch, phoned in
by his wife, was correct.
"Okay, it's going to be the man! He's got a gun," the deputy told dispatchers.
By then, the deputy had gotten out of his car with gun drawn and watched as the
suspect walked around the car toward the passenger side, where Leah was seated.
The girl then bolted out the open driver's side door to Billeiter, who returned
to his patrol car with the her.
"That's Code 4!(all safe). I got her," he radioed in. "I got her out of there,"
he said. "He's still back there and I'm (taking) the little girl to safety," he
added.
Rushing to get clear of the armed suspect, the deputy sped away from the camp,
hitting a tree along the way as he heard a single gunshot behind him. Cox had
taken his own life with an Italian-made, .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol.
A hunting bow was the only other weapon found in the shack, officials said.
Cox apparently was not the owner of the unfenced and hilly 6-acre site, which
used to be safe for hunting but now is subdivided into large tracts, scattered
with mobile and modest homes. The presumed out-of-town owner, who officials
declined to identify, has not been located yet. Hierholzer said it hasn't been
determined whether Cox had permission to use the shack, about four miles from
town.
Though torrential rains curtailed the crime scene probe late Friday, it was
resumed Saturday by FBI agents, Texas Department of Public Safety officers,
police from San Antonio and others.
Authorities were able to positively identify Cox as Leah's abductor Saturday
afternoon. Trouble with the quality of the fingerprints caused a delay in
making the match, explained Bob Doguim, an FBI spokesman. Cox's prison
fingerprints were used to make the identification.
"Now we can see what else we can attribute to Mr. Cox," Doguim said."But, that
process will take time."
Investigators here and in other states also will be retracing Cox's movements,
trying to determine whether he was responsible for other abductions and sex
crimes. Police in Austin said he may have exposed himself to children there and
investigators said he may have been active in Colorado.
"We're going to do a total back-track of him -- ever since he got out of prison
or even before he went -- and see what all we can put together," Hierholzer
said.
Houston Juvenile Division investigators will also be looking at attempted
abductions, including Monday's attempted abduction of two girls in the Clear
Lake area, to determine if Cox may have been behind those, Cannon said.
While authorities continued the investigation, the Henrys' southwest Houston
neighborhood was quiet Saturday afternoon.
Yellow ribbons, balloons and posters were spotted on trees, street signs and in
front of homes all around the neighborhood where the Henrys live.
The Henry's could not be reached for comment.
"Welcome Home Leah" posters, splashed all around the Henry's front yard, were
made by Leah's classmates to greet her when she returned Friday from the
three-day ordeal.
Maggie
"Many students react to ideas they don´t like as though they were apprentice
members of the Chinese Politburo."--Nat Hentoff on reactions to David
Horowitz's Ad Opposing Slave Reparations
Unknown
wrote:
This is interesting.
A stun gun.
Duct tape.
Ropes.
"semi-torturing . . . of little girls"
"may have been active in Colorado"
Not that I really think this guy is responsible for JonBenet's death,
but it *is* odd. Kind of like these pedophile abductors have some
common tools of the trade, so to speak (if it was an intruder in JB's
case). I wonder if Lou Smits is watching this one.
-pony
Maggie
>This is interesting.
>A stun gun.
>Duct tape.
>Ropes.
>"semi-torturing . . . of little girls"
>"may have been active in Colorado"
>
>Not that I really think this guy is responsible for JonBenet's death,
>but it *is* odd. Kind of like these pedophile abductors have some
>common tools of the trade, so to speak (if it was an intruder in JB's
>case). I wonder if Lou Smits is watching this one.
***Cox was in prison when JBR was killed.
PattyC
news:20010506125021...@ng-cg1.aol.com...
> pony said:
> >This is interesting.
> >A stun gun.
> >Duct tape.
> >Ropes.
> >"semi-torturing . . . of little girls"
> >"may have been active in Colorado"
> >
> >Not that I really think this guy is responsible for JonBenet's death,
> >but it *is* odd. Kind of like these pedophile abductors have some
> >common tools of the trade, so to speak (if it was an intruder in JB's
> >case). I wonder if Lou Smits is watching this one.
>
> ***Cox was in prison when JBR was killed.
>
> Maggie
That and he sounds like he may have been too dumb to have done it anyway.
Of course, it seems he had a lot of dumb luck for awhile.
PattyC
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people."