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Criminal Records - Most Wanted |
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Profile |
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Name: Steven Kirkley
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Race: White |
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Age Now: 30 |
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Height: 5'6" |
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Weight: 145 lbs. |
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Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair): Brown |
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Eyes (Color and Correction): Hazel |
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Wanted for :
Capital Murder, Marion County, MS;
Oct 30, 2004
Escape, Marion County, MS;
Sep 05, 2005
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Location(s) |
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Last Seen : Columbia, MS
Kirkley escaped from the Marion County Jail. |
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Possible Location : Natchez, MS
Texas
Florida
Iowa
Kirkley has been spotted in Natchez, Mississippi, where a search is underway.
Kirkley also has contacts in Florida, Iowa, and Texas. |
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Last Known : Unkown |
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Traits |
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Police say Kirkley claimed to be second in command of a gang in Mississippi called the Simon City Royals. |
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Case Story |
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First A Murder, Then A Storm |
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In October 2004, real estate agent Janell Hatton was robbed at her home in the Bunker Hill community of Marion County, Mississippi. According to investigators, she was then shot to death and buried approximately 15 miles away in an abandoned barn.
Eight people were charged in connection with the slaying, but police say Steven Kirkley was the shooter. He was arrested on Halloween in 2004 and charged with capital murder. Kirkley was awaiting trial, housed in the Marion County Jail when Hurricane Katrina made its approach toward Mississippi's coast. |
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Katrina Hits And Kirkley Runs Free |
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After Hurricane Katrina ravaged communities along Mississippi's shore, police from all over the state began responding to the incredible devastation. Sheriff's Deputies in Marion County were no exception.
While the attention of the sheriff's department was diverted to relief efforts, Kirkley and two other prisoners planned their escape from the jail. And exactly one week after Katrina struck, so did Kirkley and his accomplices. Police say in the early morning hours of Labor Day on September 5, 2005, the three men crawled up through the jail's air vents, over the roof, and escaped the jail.
Kirkley had made it out -- but now he needed to finance his new life on the run. Cops say on the night of Friday, September 16, Kirkley broke into Forest Products in Roxie, Mississippi. According to authorities, Kirkley struck again two nights later, breaking into MMC Materials in Natchez, Mississippi -- this time stealing $120 in cash, and another $50 in loose change.
The next day, police released information about Kirkley to the media, hoping someone would spot the fugitive and call police. Cops believed he was possibly using a tent to camp out in the Natchez area, and spent Monday night searching for Kirkley. Again, they came up empty handed.
But the information they'd released to the public had just the effect police wanted -- and early Tuesday morning, two employees at the Homochitto Exxon convenience store in Natchez called police to report Kirkley had been in the store. The employees told police the fugitive had entered the store around 5:30 a.m. and purchased two sodas, two bottles of chocolate milk, a candy bar, and a bag of potato chips. When cops arrived, they watched the store's surveillance footage and confirmed the early morning shopper had indeed been Kirkley -- and that the alleged crook had a new look.
Police say Kirkley now has extremely short hair, and new tattoos -- two small teardrops under his right eye, a teardrop under his left eye and the word "royal" on the right side of his neck between his ear and shoulder. Police believe the meaning of the tattooed words "royal" stems from Kirkley's claims of being second in command of a gang called the Simon City Royals. In the surveillance footage, Kirkley is wearing a camouflage shirt, jeans or blue cotton work pants, and a baseball cap that could possibly have the Philadelphia Eagles logo on it. |
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The Search Continues |
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Equipped with the new information, Natchez police and special response teams scoured the area, and found evidence Kirkley had been on a railroad trestle nearby the convenience store -- his empty chocolate milk bottles, an empty Marlboro 100s cigarette box, and a broken lighter. The search continued Tuesday morning, and only intensified when a woman frantically waved down a Natchez police officer to tell him she'd spotted Kirkley in a "Fred's Discount Store." Search crews spent the day Tuesday in 98-degree temperatures and high humidity searching creeks, rivers, and railroad tracks for any sign of Kirkley.
Cops say Kirkley knows they're onto him -- and may try to leave Natchez by traveling over a long bridge to Vidalia, Louisiana in Concordia Parish. Police there are keeping watch over the bridge while Natchez police continue searching for Kirkley. |
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