Woman Carjacked By Escapees Tells Tale of Survival

Stacy Richards kidnapped by a murderer and a rapist as the two escaped from an Oklahoma prison.<br/><br/>The men - who told her they were serving life sentences - abducted the victim in a prison parking

Wednesday, October 19th 2005, 9:19 am

By: News On 6

Stacy Richards kidnapped by a murderer and a rapist as the two escaped from an Oklahoma prison.

The men - who told her they were serving life sentences - abducted the victim in a prison parking lot and made their escape in her van.

It happened at the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington.

Now she's back safe with her family and the woman is sharing her story.

News on Six Reporter Heather Lewin says Stacy Richards had just paid her weekly visit to her fiance when two men approached her in the prison parking lot.

Stacy Richards: "They told me they were security and that the drug dog hit on my van and I needed to go up front to be searched."

She realized something was wrong when the two shoved her into the van. One got behind the wheel and drove away from the prison.

"I just laid my head down and said, 'Oh God, no.' "

She says that's when Aaron Olsen and Pharon Johnson told her they were escaping.

"They told me from the very beginning, they weren't going to hurt me as long as I didn't do anything stupid."

She took the men at their word and cooperated. She says they were laughing and joking, bragging to her about the escape.

"How they made their clothing, how they'd dyed it. They planned it for two years, how they'd been digging for two months."

They told her they'd dug through the wall, down into an office and walked out the front door with the visitors.

She says they drove around for a few hours then took her into the woods and left.

"I was taped like this, and around my mouth, around my head and my legs."

Richards says the two didn't tell her where they were going. After they left her, bound and gagged, not far from the highway, they jumped back in her van and apparently headed north.

Richards flagged down a passing car for help. Police found her van early Tuesday morning, abandonded just over the Kansas state line.

She says the men were polite and told her they knew her fiance - a fellow inmate - and respected him.

They repeatedly apologized, even saying they would call and tell someone where they left her.

Richards didn't have to wonder why she was chosen. The two escapees told her.

"It was between me and a man who was pretty big, we were the only two alone in the parking lot so they chose me."

Police say Olsen and Johnson are believed to have stopped at a convenience store and a restaurant in Arkansas City around 8:00AM Tuesday.

They were last seen heading east on Highway 166.

Richards says they look a bit different than their pictures. Both now have short hair. Johnson is clean-shaven, Olsen has a mustache and goatee.

She also says they vowed they would not be taken alive.