Escaped inmate captured in Houston

The Associated Press

HOUSTON — Authorities captured an escaped inmate here Monday suspected for two bank robberies and a kidnapping in Fayetteville.

Patrick Bigelow, 44, was arrested after a manhunt that led law enforcement authorities from the Fayette County Jail, to an abandoned lot in Hempstead, over to a pair of College Station Citibank branches. Then he went to a Blinn College parking lot in Bryan before he was arrested at a Houston hotel room off Interstate 45.

Patrick Bigelow, 44, was arrested after a leading authorities on an extensive manhunt. (Clip Syndicate)

Monday's bank crimes bring the total robberies in which Bigelow is a suspect to eight since mid- 2007, including three in College Station, FBI spokeswoman Thayer Cassy said in a story for Tuesday's editions of the Bryan-College Station Eagle.

The spree started at 11:07 a.m. Sunday when Bigelow overpowered a female security guard at the Fayette County Jail, took her key and escaped, authorities said. State and federal agents began searching the area that is about 75 miles from Brazos County and sent notices to law enforcement agencies in the region.

The Fayette County Sheriffs Office said investigators believe Sundays escape was premeditated and that Bigelow had a getaway car waiting for him outside the jail. The car authorities said he used was later found at Bigelows mothers house in Katy. It was unclear who owned the vehicle.

Authorities said Bigelow kidnapped a Fayetteville man early Monday morning, held him at gunpoint and then drove the mans car to Hempstead, about 50 miles from College Station, where Bigelow left him unharmed.

Investigators said Bigelow, who had a pistol, was found alone in a Houston hotel room by U.S. Marshals at around 1 p.m.

Bigelow, who had been jailed for the past month on $300,000 bail, is accused of conducting many of the bank robberies while wearing a fake beard as a disguise, leading authorities to give him the moniker 'the Santa Claus Robber.' He was not wearing such a disguise Monday, police said.

Investigators said they still were looking into how Bigelow covered so much ground Monday and why he targeted College Station.