Officials say escapee got help from mom

Saturday, August 12, 2006 Investigators found a traveler's check receipt and phone cards. CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) — An escaped inmate accused of killing a police officer instructed his mother over a jail phone line to prepare her home for his pending arrival, according to search warrants. Investigators had reason to believe John Parsons, who has eluded authorities for 11 days, received help from his mother, Debra Flesher, according to a warrant issued by Chillicothe Municipal Judge Thomas Bunch that was made public Wednesday. The warrant to search Flesher's home says she put camping equipment on her porch in Frankfort, about 12 miles from Chillicothe, where the Ross County jail is located. Parsons apparently never picked up the items, the warrant indicates. Authorities collected a traveler's check receipt and prepaid phone calling card from a bedroom in the home and a tent from a back porch, according to an inventory of the search. No charges have been filed against Flesher. A message seeking comment was left at her home Thursday. Reported shooting Parsons, 35, is accused of robbing a gas station and shooting Chillicothe officer Larry Cox in the neck when Cox chased him on foot in April 2005. Authorities say Parsons used a makeshift rope of toilet paper and bed sheets to flee from the rooftop recreation area of the Ross County jail July 29. Sheriff Ron Nichols said he doesn't know when investigators listened to Parsons' recorded phone conversations. The recording system does not sort the calls by inmate, and routinely listening to every call is too labor-intensive, he said. Nichols said investigators have talked to all the people who visited Parsons in jail. According to a visitors' log, Parsons' mother, girlfriend and several friends had been to see him. Nichols has said that several people could be charged with helping Parsons. The only one charged so far is Orlando Crockett of Chillicothe, a man who once worked with Parsons, who is accused of giving him a T-shirt and a drink the day of his escape. Chillicothe is 45 miles south of Columbus.