The Associated Press | Posted: Friday, July 22, 2005 12:00 am
WALLACE, Idaho (AP) - A manhunt continued Friday for a registered sex offender after his 12-year-old daughter was stabbed repeatedly and abandoned near a northern Idaho campground, Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds said.
The girl was covered with stab wounds and was in serious condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center in nearby Spokane, Wash., officials said Friday. She was talking to investigators, Reynalds said.
John Rollins Tuggle, 37, a registered sex offender who was released from an Idaho prison last year after serving nine years for raping his 14-year-old sister-in-law, is the only suspect in the case, Reynalds said.
"We have the whole world looking for him," Reynalds said, including the FBI. A $10 million warrant was issued for his arrest, an exceptionally high figure, Reynalds said, because of the severity of the crime and Tuggle's criminal history.
Deputies were searching areas where Tuggle has relatives, the sheriff said.
The girl lives with her mother in Athol, which is south of Sandpoint.
Reynalds said the girl was found lying in brush alongside a road in the Lost Creek drainage, north of Wallace, by people who said they heard her yell as they were searching for a campsite. She was bound and had stab wounds "all over" her body, Reynalds said
Tuggle was believed to be driving a red 1989 Ford Escort with Colorado license plates and "is known to carry large knives on his person and in his vehicle," the sheriff's office said on a wanted poster.
Tuggle is described as 6-foot and 200 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes and numerous tattoos. He is an "outdoorsy person" who could be hiding in remote areas of the mountainous Idaho Panhandle, Reynalds said.
Authorities have no motive for the attack. "Anger, alcohol, we have no idea," Reynalds said.
Tuggle was released from an Idaho prison in January 2004 and moved to Colorado, Reynalds said.
In Colorado, Routt County Sheriff John Warner said Tuggle was living outside of Hayden, Colo., with his brother, Chris.
He registered as a sex offender in Routt County on Feb. 2, 2004, and has fully complied with Colorado law regarding his sex offender status, Warner said.
Tuggle most recently worked as a painter in Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Tuggle had not seen his daughter for the past decade, The Spokesman-Review of Spokane reported Friday. On July 14, he left his Colorado home and drove to Athol, Idaho, to see his children, according to his brother.
Tuggle told his ex-wife he was taking their daughter on an outing to the shopping mall.
Reynalds said Tuggle called his ex-wife around 11 a.m. to say they were having "a good time." The sheriff said the girl likely was stabbed around 1 p.m. and spent four to five hours bleeding and alone before a family looking for a campsite off Forest Service Road 442 heard her cries.
"Right now she's safe," Reynalds said Thursday afternoon. "She's in good hands. Her mother is with her."
Tuggle was sentenced in 1995 in Shoshone County District Court for the rape of his then-wife's 14-year-old sister. According to court records, Tuggle raped the girl on at least two separate occasions, in May and June 1994. Tuggle pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months fixed, and 7.5 years indeterminate time in prison for the rape.
He served all his time in the Idaho State Prison, never qualifying for parole.
Tuggle and the girl's mother were married on Jan. 13, 1993, in Coeur d'Alene, five days before their daughter was born. In December 1993, they had their second child, a boy, according to court records. They were divorced while Tuggle was in prison.
Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesmanreview.com