|
by Val Ellicott
Staff Writer
The human bloodhounds tracking Jerri Gaither know
where she shops, what she drinks, even which books she likes to read.
They have letters she's written, checks she's
cashed and photos of Gaither, tan and blond, showing off her latest
hairstyle and flashing a pearly, seductive smile.
But the bloodhounds are running out of time, and
Gaither is still smiling.
``She's lasted a lot longer than I thought she
would,'' said Mike Sandy, a bail bondsman with a financial stake in
seeing Gaither returned to Palm Beach County to stand trial for
murder. ``She's run a good race so far.''
Gaither, 38, allegedly shot another woman in the
head in 1993, then drove around for several days with the body before
dumping it along a remote road in Indian River County. She fled the
county in November after Sandy and two other bondsmen, Jayne Parsons
and Barry Echols, posted her $100,000 bond.
``I realistically fully expect to be brought back
or die,'' Gaither wrote Nov. 9 to Billy Canada, a boyfriend in North
Carolina who later turned the letter over to Parsons.
Dave Chipman, an investigator, or ``skip tracer,''
hired by Parsons and Echols, believes Gaither, an avid reader of
real-life crime novels, knew the letter would find its way to her pursuers.
``She meant for us to see it,'' he said.
If Gaither isn't found by mid-April, the three
bondsmen will forfeit the money they posted unless they convince a
judge this week to grant them an extension.
So far, Gaither has proved surprisingly adept at
staying out of reach.
``She's having fun at it,'' Chipman said. ``It's
the thrill of the chase.''
Gaither is a canny manipulator with a gift for
changing her appearance and for cultivating the affections of
well-to-do men, exploiting them for temporary shelter and,
occasionally, whatever she can steal, Chipman said.
Past attachments include a husband, Gary Bogart,
who committed suicide in 1991. Gaither told police Bogart shot at her
first, then shot himself. She collected more than $250,000 on his
life insurance, Chipman said.
A wealthy 78-year-old Boca Raton man, Samuel David,
paid for his relationship with Gaither in cash, jewelry and guns he
says she stole when she disappeared from his house in November,
according to Chipman and police.
In addition to Chipman and other skip tracers, Boca
Raton police officers, FBI agents and deputies with the fugitive unit
of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office are hunting for Gaither.
``Jerri is going to be captured, and I think it's
going to be sooner rather than later,'' Boca Raton Police Detective
Guy DiBenedetto said Friday.
``I think Jerri is in a box. She got herself into
something that's way over her head.''
Chipman is less optimistic. He worries the search
for Gaither will end if she leaves the country, and he suspects she
will any day. A letter sent to her in October from a friend, Natalie
Zabrodski, mentions a trip to Europe this month.
``At the end of the month, she's gone,'' Chipman
said. ``I might as well put my file away.''
SUSPECT BLAMED BOYFRIEND
Gaither, a native of South Carolina, is charged
with killing Christina Racey, 44, in Boca Raton in July 1993. She was
arrested Dec. 16 that year after a standoff with sheriff's deputies
in Okeechobee County, where she was found walking along U.S. 441 near
Fort Drum, carrying a semiautomatic pistol and threatening to commit suicide.
Gaither blamed the murder on a boyfriend, Salah
``Avner'' Levy, saying Levy killed Racey because Racey was demanding
more money for the Percodan pills she was selling to Gaither. Gaither
said Levy then ordered her to dispose of the body.
Prosecutors initially charged Levy with murder but
dropped the charge for lack of evidence. Four months later, a grand
jury indicted Gaither in Racey's murder.
``Because of it all, I've turned into a person I do
not like,'' Gaither said in her letter to Canada. ``I'm using men
just like they've always used me.''
In the same letter, Gaither again accuses Levy of
the murder, complains about friends who have ``turn-coated'' on her
and blames DiBenedetto for forcing her out of her son's life.
Gaither's brother, John King of Charleston, S.C.,
recalls his sister as a ``genuinely sweet person'' who was usually
able to charm people into giving her what she wanted. He also
described her as ``slick and shrewd.''
``She likes to make money, and she knows how to
make money,'' King said. ``She likes doing business, wheeling and dealing.''
Gaither is also cautious. While visiting Billy
Canada in October, she found letters she had written him, removed
them from the envelopes and replaced them with blank paper, Chipman said.
Before arriving in Florida in 1992, Gaither ran a
dating service in Charleston that she later sold to her brother. One
of her early businesses in Florida was a 1-900 dating phone service,
King said.
Gaither's mother lives in Laurens, S.C., and she
has a 12-year-old son, John, who lives in California. There is no one
else she feels strongly attached to, Chipman said, which helps
explain why she has eluded detection so long.
Gaither is a challenge for other reasons as well.
She knows how to manufacture phony identification; received extensive
weapons training from her first husband, a major in the Army; is
proficient with computers; and has contacts from her days in the Air
Force who Chipman fears may help her leave the country.
``People say she's a little bit of an airhead, but
she's really pretty smart,'' he said.
Chipman doubts Gaither ever intended to stand trial
for Racey's murder. As proof, he cites a letter to Gaither from
Zabrodski, sent Oct. 25, about a week before Gaither became a fugitive.
``Postponing the travel plans is OK by me,''
Zabrodski wrote. ``Let' s plan beginning of March. Maybe we should go
somewhere farther. Paris - Spain - Switzerland.''
That letter was sent to a hotel in West Palm Beach,
but Gaither had checked out before it arrived, according to Chipman,
who obtained it from the hotel.
Under Florida law, Chipman may locate Gaither but
cannot arrest her. He has tracked her movements from Florida to North
Carolina and back to Florida, where he says she has circulated
between Fort Lauderdale, Titusville, Melbourne and Cocoa Beach.
`SHE'S VERY SLICK'
``I've posed as everything from a gutter drunk to a
vacuum cleaner salesman,'' Chipman said Thursday. ``I'll sit on
houses for days at a time and just wait.''
He and police also have questioned Zabrodski, who
has denied knowing anything about Racey's murder. Chipman has tailed
her, but Zabrodski proved as tough to track as Gaither.
``We stayed on her 24 hours a day, seven days a
week,'' Chipman said. ``She's very slick. We had four people
following her at once and she still lost us.''
Recently, Gaither, who deserted from the Air Force
in 1975, has been spotted on familiar turf near Patrick Air Force
Base on Cape Canaveral, Chipman said.
He said she has been passing bad checks, an
indication she is running low on cash. Gaither knows how to find
temporary income, Chipman said, but the associated stress could
aggravate her prescription pain-killer habit, and that could provide
the break Chipman has been waiting for.
``She takes pills when she gets upset,'' he said,
``and when she starts doing pills she starts making mistakes.''
DiBenedetto says Gaither has already made her
biggest mistake.
``Jerri may have been a player in South Carolina,
but South Florida is the capital of players,'' he said. ``She got
caught up in something that's way beyond her.''
*top
ONE STEP AHEAD
Jerri Gaither has skipped a $100,000 bond and
avoided prosecution on a first-degree murder charge. The people
holding her bond have until April to find her. So far, she's remained
one step ahead:
NOV. 2, 1994: Gaither leaves the Rougemont, N.C.,
home of a boyfriend, Billy Canada, driving a car rented by Canada.
She drives to Boca Raton to the home of her then-roommate, Samuel
David, a wealthy 78- year-old retiree. The rental car is never
returned, and Canada reports it stolen.
NOV. 3: She misses a court appearance in Palm Beach
County on a charge of first-degree murder.
NOV. 4 AND 5: Gaither is seen with a friend,
Natalie Zabrodski, in Fort Lauderdale.
NOV. 6 AND 7: She returns to David's home in Boca Raton.
NOV. 8: She abruptly leaves David's house. David
later reports the theft of three handguns and more than $12,000 in
cash and jewelry.
NOV. 9: Gaither sends a letter to Billy Canada from Melbourne.
NOV. 10: She uses a credit card at the Holiday Inn
in Indialantic.
NOV. 11 AND 12: She is at September's Lounge in
Fort Lauderdale with Zabrodski.
NOV. 22: She cashes checks totaling $700 in Merritt
Island, Cocoa Beach and Titusville.
FEB. 6, 1995: Gaither is seen at a department store
in Titusville attempting to cash check. She leaves her driver license behind.
MARCH 4: She returns to the department store.
MARCH 7: She is kicked out of hotel in Fort
Lauderdale for drug paraphernalia.
AFTER MARCH 7: She is seen at stores in Cocoa Beach
and Melbourne.
|
