Investigator has doubts about Bobbie Parker's kidnapping accounts

Tuesday, April 26th 2005, 6:36 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A criminal investigator for the Orange County, Texas, district attorneys office says he believes Bobbi Parker helped convicted murderer Randolph Dial escape nearly 11 years ago from an Oklahoma prison and should be arrested.

K.C. Breshears' office in Orange County received the tip that Dial and Parker were hiding at an east Texas chicken farm.

``I believe he smooth-talked her and seduced her at the prison, and I believe she fell in love with him and helped him escape,'' said Breshears, who was part of the team that arrested Dial at the trailer home in Campti, Texas, where they lived nearly five years.

Breshears said investigators found four or five romantic cards signed with either an ``R'' or ``S.'' Dial used the pseudonym ``Richard Deahl'' and Parker used the pseudonym ``Samantha Deahl.''

Several who knew the pair in Texas and a law enforcement official assigned to watch Bobbi Parker, 42, after Dial's arrest all have strongly supported Parker's contention that she lived in fear of Dial's threats to have her family harmed if she left him or turned him in.

Dial, 60, said the pair lived as ``roommates'' and had separate bedrooms. But Breshears said only one of the bedrooms had a bed and that the couch ``had so much ... piled on it that it looks like it'd been there 100 years.''

Breshears also had doubts about both of their responses when found. The first thing Dial said was ``I kidnapped her'' _ an odd thing to say when caught after nearly 11 years, Breshears said. Parker later was found in one of the chicken houses. Her first words were ``What did he tell you?'' Breshears said.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is looking at whether to seek a kidnapping charge against Dial or whether any charges are warranted against Bobbi Parker.

OSBI Inspector Richard Goss, based in Lawton, said the agency is investigating ``whether that was a voluntary relationship or whether she was a captive.'' He admitted they haven't yet spoken to Bobbi Parker, who is back with her husband, Randy, now warden of the William S. Key Correctional Center in Fort Supply.

Randy Parker said his wife saw a counselor last week and they continue to try to put the ordeal behind them.

``She's getting out more and talking to people more. More like the Bobbi we knew, but it's a slow process. She gets out and goes uptown and gets to see people,'' Randy Parker said. ``Most people have been very kind.''

He said Dial's threats are still ``very real'' to his wife, regardless of others seeing them as irrational.

Randy Parker also said the FBI told him the investigation is over and agents consider the ordeal a kidnapping.

Martha Rash was co-owner of the chicken farm in Campti, where the pair was found. She said she believes Bobbi Parker's story.

``I don't think she would've traded the life she had for that life by choice,'' Rash said.

Still, Breshears said Parker had many opportunities to be rid of Dial _ such as when he suffered a massive heart attack in March 2004 and, instead of letting him die in the trailer, she called 911.

``She could've done something to him in his sleep. She could've just left,'' Breshears said.

Breshears said he believes Oklahoma authorities are right in investigating a case that may end up in court.

``I don't think it should be brushed aside just because nobody wants to do anything mean to her,'' Breshears said. ``I think if she helped him escape, she should be charged for it. Look at the danger she put other people in by that happening because Mr. Dial is a convicted murderer _ and who's to say he wouldn't do it again?

``And look at all the anguish she put her family through and all the man hours tracking him when they could've worked other cases. If she helped him escape, she cost the taxpayers lots of money, she caused her family a lot of grief.

``For her sake, I hope that I'm wrong. But I don't think I am.''