Most Wanted targets Dallas County fugitive
Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/232107/
FORDYCE — Dallas County Sheriff Donny Ford sat down in front of a green screen Tuesday as a TV crew patted down his face with makeup, getting him ready to share with a national audience the unlikely tale of a dental-floss jailbreak.
America’s Most Wanted is in the south Arkansas town this week, filming a segment that Ford hopes will land a fugitive back behind bars.
Last December, two cellmates used dental floss and a heated razor blade to cut through a thick metal bar and a window before scaling a barbed-wire fence and escaping to freedom.
Shannon David Ray, 26, was caught a few days later near Memphis. But seven months later, Humberto Fortanelli is still on the lam.
The 21-year-old was jailed after authorities said he shot at a Malvern police officer during a pursuit. He’s believed to have fled to Mexico, where he is from.
The crew from the Fox television show will talk with lawmen and people who know Fortanelli to try to glean details about his life.
“We don’t just report a crime,” said Diana Nolan, an associate producer of the program hosted by John Walsh. “We make people care about it.”
They also plan to interview Ray, who is now being held in isolation at the Dallas County lockup.
Ray, who faces numerous charges including aggravated robbery in multiple counties, is expected to describe the pair’s escape for the cameras.
Actors later will re-enact the escape to be filmed at studios in Maryland.
The seven-minute segment is to air in October.
Sigona said the program has been “directly responsible” for the capture of 1, 021 fugitives since it began airing in 1988. One of them was Calvin Bennett, a man accused of killing an elderly couple outside their southwest Arkansas home in 2006.
He was caught in Wisconsin later that year after a piece aired on him. Now, he is scheduled to stand trial in Howard County.