Thomas Creighton Shrader was obsessed with his girlfriend. She broke up with him in 1974, but he refused to believe the relationship was over. In July 1975, he showed up at her mother's West Virginia house demanding that his ex-girlfriend get in his car. When she refused, he drove away, but returned with a high-powered rifle. He shot the lock off a door, entered the house and shot Howard William "Rusty" Adams Jr., a family friend visiting while on leave from the military. Prosecutors believe Shrader mistakenly thought Adams was the new boyfriend. Shrader then shot the mother as she and her daughter tried to flee. Both Adams and the mother died from their wounds.
Shrader pleaded guilty in January 1976 to both slayings and to unlawful wounding. He was sentenced to life in prison with the chance of parole. He escaped from prison less than 6 months later. The ex-girlfriend and her family were forced to flee as the lunatic eluded capture and stalked her. He was later captured and pleaded guilty to escape. His punishment? A big old year added to his life sentence.
Even in prison, he kept up his harassment of the ex-girlfriend, suing her for refusing to marry him. She and her husband finally left West Virginia to escape. He continued to write to her family members trying to find out where she was. After all this, the lunatics on the West Virginia parole board let him out in 1993.
Somehow, he found his ex-girlfriend in 2008 and resumed the letter writing and phone calls. The ex-girlfriend's husband believes there were multiple attempts to find them beforehand -- for example, someone had tried to get his military records, and someone had called making inquiries about their children.The recurrent theme in the 2008 and 2009 letters was that everything that had happened was her fault, and if she came back to him, he'd forgive her and everything would be OK. He knew her children's names, and he told her in one letter, "In the name of Jesus I claim you and your soul in future lives.You have been running from me since July 1975. By that I mean running away from seeing me and being with me to actually confront your real and true feelings for me . . .Running won't do you any good this time. It's time to face the piper." Shrader's attorney claims the letter may be "distasteful," but it's not threatening. Really? From a man who's already killed your mother and friend and stalked you for more than 30 years?
Not to worry, West Virginia will revoke his parole and he'll have to serve out that life sentence. Not quite. He's been sentenced to 19 years in the federal penitentiary for interstate stalking. No mention of what West Virginia intends to do on the old murder convictions. Would you feel safe if you were the ex-girlfriend, her husband, or her children? If you answered that question honestly, then you have to be in favor of the death penalty. Nothing short of that will insure that family's security.
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1221460679/Family-seeks-peace-after-killer-stalker-sentenced
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