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Donna moses brown

Donna Moses Brown

Real Name: Donna May Moses Brown
Nicknames: Donna Butcher (maiden name), Sherry Gregory
Location: Taft, Oklahoma
Date: December 3, 1984

Bio[]

Occupation: Unrevealed
Date of Birth: February 15, 1947
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 140 lbs.
Marital Status: Married
Characteristics: White female

Case[]

Details: Thirty-seven-year-old Donna Moses Brown had two children named Sherry Nickerson and David Easdon. She had been married and widowed twice. Both husbands had been murdered. Raising two children on her own was a constant struggle. Despite this, she found time to participate in activities with her local church. In 1984, her church group started writing letters to convicts at a nearby correctional facility to help them find spiritual comfort. She began writing to a twenty-eight-year-old convicted killer named Michael Wayne Brown. But these pen pals quickly became more. One day, she came to visit him in prison. He told her about how supportive she was and about how much her letters helped him. She said he wrote sweet ones as well. He told her that she was beautiful.
Sherry said Donna was lonely. Donna had not had anybody for a very long time, and she needed Michael's companionship. She needed someone to talk with her about things and show her love and affection. And that is what she got from him. They soon began a romantic relationship. David believes that she fell for Michael because he was someone new in her life that she could talk to. David thinks that Michael would have "fallen" for anyone; it just happened to be Donna.
Lt. Shamblin of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said that Michael, like a lot of men who are incarcerated for long periods of time, did not have much concern for other people's rights or lives. He said they have all the time in the world to scam or scheme on people. And they get quite good at it. Sherry said that Donna wrote and talked to Michael on the phone every day. She says the relationship kind of started and then went "full force", with no slowing down between them.
Lt. Shamblin thinks that Donna was under the misconception that Michael was just a "misunderstood" young man who, through unfortunate circumstances, was doing time. But he was hardly misunderstood. Everyone but Donna knew what he was: a cold-blooded killer. Nine years earlier, on the night of May 14, 1975, he, then eighteen, and his fifteen-year-old friend, Dennis Woodward, burglarized M.F.A. Insurance Company's office in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Forty-one-year-old insurance investigator Richard E. Sullivan picked the wrong time to stop by the office for a file. He discovered Michael and Dennis ransacking the place. After taking $48 from Richard's wallet, Michael forced him to face the wall and then shot him in the back with a .22-caliber pistol. Michael was "very hyper" after the shooting. He said, "I killed him, I killed him," as if he were bragging about it. He then said to Dennis, "If I had one more bullet, I would have shot his eyes out."
After the shooting, Michael and Dennis went off with Dennis' girlfriend and a friend to have breakfast at a local restaurant. While there, Michael admitted to them that he shot Richard. Meanwhile, Richard bled to death on his office floor. He left behind a wife and young daughter, who were waiting outside for him while the murder took place.
The gun used in the murder was later recovered and tied to Dennis. Michael, Dennis, and Dennis' girlfriend were arrested. Dennis and his girlfriend both pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and received five-year sentences. In October 1975, Michael was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. However, that sentence was later commuted to life without parole when Oklahoma's death penalty was ruled unconstitutional. By the time he met Donna in 1984, he had spent nine years in prison. Meanwhile, she had served a different kind of time, being a twice-widowed single mother. Perhaps it was just another ironic twist in her hard luck life that she now found herself in love with a murderer ten years her junior.
Sherry said the relationship with Michael was consuming Donna too much. Eventually, she did not have time for anything else but him. She would visit him every weekend. And she would spend the whole week preparing to see him. On August 31, 1984, less than three months after they met, they were married at Howard McLeod Correctional Center in Atoka County. Moments after the ceremony, the honeymoon was over. Michael, back in shackles and prison orange, was returned to his cell.
Donna sent Sherry and David to stay with relatives and followed Michael as he was transferred from prison to prison, sometimes living out of her car. Between visiting days, she wrote letters. He became her whole world. On November 20, 1984, he was transferred to Jess Dunn Correctional Center in Taft, Oklahoma, a minimum-security prison. It was a perfect opportunity, and he wasted little time.
Less than three weeks later, on December 3, Michael and another inmate named thirty-year-old William Dale Davis jumped a four-foot fence and raced for freedom, with Donna apparently driving the getaway car. By the time guards discovered them missing, it was too late. Police have remained a step or two behind Michael ever since.
Sherry turned fifteen just nine days after the escape. Her birthday party was hardly a joyous event. She was living with her uncle's family, and though they did their best, it was impossible to pretend anyone was happy. She said she was unhappy, numb, and did not feel anything. She says it was the worst birthday of her life. Her party included a number of uninvited guests: Oklahoma state troopers stationed inside the house and out. They believed Donna might stop there. However, she never showed up.
In early 1985, following a tip, authorities tracked Michael, Donna, and William to an apartment in Paris, Texas. However, they missed them by a matter of minutes. Later that year, it was discovered that Michael and William were working as linemen for a Virginia cable company. Kentucky police wounded and arrested William after a shootout. However, Michael and Donna managed to disappear once again. Since then, he is known to have lived in Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia. He and Donna have used the aliases of "David and Sherry Gregory".
For three years, Donna's family had no word from her, no idea if she was alive or dead. Finally, in 1987, she made an unexpected call to Sherry. She said that she was okay, that she was outside of Oklahoma, but wanted to come home. She also said that she and Michael had broken up. Sherry said the call was quick. Donna told her that she loved her and that was it. Though Donna had said she wanted to come home, she never did.
Police discovered that in 1989, Donna was working as a waitress in New Jersey. In either 1990 or 1991, she called Sherry and David again, asking if she had grandchildren. At that time, she did not. Since then, however, Sherry and David have each had a son. Both would like nothing more than to introduce them to Donna. Sherry believes Donna is afraid to return because of her involvement in the escape. David suspects that she is afraid that they do not want her back. He thinks that she feels like she did something really bad, and that she can't face her family anymore. He wants her to know that it is okay and that they want her back.
There is nothing to stop Donna from rejoining her family. She can come home at any time. FBI Special Agent Peter Rickel said that there is no arrest warrant issued either by the state of Oklahoma or by the federal government for her. She is not wanted on any charges. In fact, Agent Rickel would encourage her, if she is no longer with Michael, or, if she is with him, to immediately contact the authorities so that they can speak to her about him.
Donna has never been charged with any crime because both her family and the authorities view her as a victim. A lonely widow, so desperate for love that she could be manipulated by a convicted killer.
Suspects: Michael Wayne Brown
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the April 10, 1998 episode.
  • Other cases of women who helped their lovers escape prison include those of Diane Brodbeck, Kay Beeman, Karen Walters, and Melody Woods.
  • Some sources state that Michael escaped on December 4, and that Richard's office was in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
  • Donna's first husband, Clifford McAninch, was murdered in North Richmond, California, in 1971. John Correia was charged in his case. She remarried to Leroy Moses in 1972. He was murdered on November 7 of that year in Alameda, California. It was initially thought that he was killed by the Zodiac Killer. However, fingerprints later identified Arlonzo Neil as his killer. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Results: Solved. In June 1999, an alert viewer named Greg Gray chanced upon a photograph of Michael on the show's website. He recognized Michael as "Kenneth K. Ginter", who owned a K&L video store with his wife, "Linda", in the quiet suburb of Kettering, Ohio. In fact, they were Michael and Donna. They had lived there since 1993 in an apparent "law-abiding" existence. They went through three court cases under their aliases. Strangely, in April 1999, he filed for divorce from her.
Greg's wife, Delores, worked with Michael and Donna at the store. Greg says no one in Kettering would have thought Michael was a murderer. Greg said Michael was like an "icon" of the community. Everybody liked him; kids would come in and high-five him and he would give them candy. He was a "super nice guy".
Coincidentally, about fifteen minutes after spotting the photos on the website, Greg received a phone call from Michael. He asked if Delores could work that night. Greg told him that he had seen a guy on a website that looked like him. Greg mentioned the name "Michael Wayne Brown", and Michael got quiet for a minute. He then responded, "Well, Greg, everybody has a twin." So Greg initially left it at that.
Over the next few days, Michael reportedly began acting strangely. Suspicious, Greg decided to show the photograph to the video store employees. He also asked Delores to look at Michael's arm and see if he had any tattoos. She noticed some, but they were colored in. However, they matched the description of the ones on the show's website. This made Greg even more suspicious. At first, he was hesitant to call the FBI, because he was close to Michael and thought he was a nice person. But then, he thought about the victim in Michael's case and realized he needed to call the FBI.
Realizing that he had been recognized, Michael quietly dropped from sight a few days after the call with Greg. Before leaving, he dropped off the key to the store with a coworker, saying that Donna was being Care flighted to a hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee, because she was suffering from congestive heart failure. A few days later, he called the coworker from Kentucky and said, "I'm not going to be back for a while; you can do whatever you want with the store. I'm going to be gone for a long time."
Knowing that authorities were one step behind him, Michael decided to turn himself in. On June 29, 1999, Donna dropped him off at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. He arrived carrying a toothbrush, toothpaste, and $125 to restock his commissary account for toiletries and snacks. He told authorities he was tired of living life on the lam. He also said that, along with Ohio, he had lived in Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, and worked many odd jobs while on the run. He is now serving a life sentence at the penitentiary. He was also sentenced to an additional two years for his escape.
After dropping Michael off at the prison, Donna was reunited with her family in Oklahoma. She was reportedly "terminally ill" at the time. Authorities viewed her as his "hapless victim". She was never charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the escape.
In April 2016, an arrest warrant was issued for Donna for obtaining food stamps by fraud, identity theft, and unlawful use or display of a license or identification card. It was discovered that in September 1999, she applied for public assistance at the Pittsburg County Department of Human Services while using the alias "Linda Ginter". She received DHS benefits until 2015, when a DHS investigative agent was notified that she was using an alias. Through their investigation, DHS discovered that she had used several other aliases throughout the years to commit fraud. Among the names she used were Linda Faye King, Linda Faye Ginter, and Joan Morton.
Donna used a birth certificate from Kentucky for a "Linda Faye King" born in 1948 to apply for DHS benefits. The real Linda was born the same day but died less than a year later. She also used an Oklahoma driver's license and a Social Security Card bearing the name "Linda Ginter" to receive DHS benefits. Further investigation revealed that she reported earnings in 2004, 2005, and 2006 from a local business.
When DHS agents went to Donna's house, she introduced herself as "Linda Ginter". She admitted using a false identity and said she had other identities in case one became compromised. She said after Michael turned himself in, she wanted to go back to her true identity. However, since she was already receiving Social Security and medical benefits under "Linda Ginter", she continued using the alias. When questioned, she provided several false identification documents to DHS agents.
It is not known if Donna ever served time on these charges. Sadly, on March 19, 2017, she passed away at the age of seventy.
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