Mississippi deputies catch fugitive in 40-year-old case

JACKSON, Miss. — Wayne County Sheriff Jody Ashley said he knew his men could be going into a dangerous situation as they suited up to try to catch the suspect in a 1976 Texas cold case.

As his team got ready, he had Mississippi Highway Patrol coming to help with their helicopter. The area where David Lee Edds, 61, was supposed to be hiding was heavily wooded and off the beaten path.

Ashely also knew that if he was hiding in a pup tent in the woods of Wayne County after running from police, Edds could potentially be armed and desperate.

Edds was wanted in the 1976 stabbing death of Rene Anthony Guillotte, 28, in Harris County, Texas, Harris County Senior Deputy Thomas Gilliland said.  He went on the run when a DNA text connected him to the victim after going undetected for 40 years .

Related:

FBI Most Wanted fugitive arrested in El Paso

FBI: Fugitive arrested, no 'additional threats'

Ashley said the team of SWAT deputies, U.S. Marshals, and Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks rangers gathered at daylight near Strengthford Cooley Road, close to the Wayne and Jones County line.

"I just prayed that none of my guys would get hurt and that this guy wouldn't get hurt," he said. "We let the neighbors know what we were doing, and that we'd be holding a perimeter until we got him."

On the phone with MHP about the helicopter, Ashley was listening as his men made their move.

"I heard the command of, 'Show me your hands,' he said. "I'm on the phone with MHP, and I say, 'Hold up, we've got him,' then the call comes in that he's under arrest."

Gilliland said in a release that on May 11, 1976, Guillotte's body was found on a private oilfield road. He was naked and had multiple stab wounds and lacerations on his head, neck and torso.

Guillotte had last been seen leaving a bar in the Montrose area of Houston around 1 a.m. Harris County authorities spoke to witnesses and pulled in the Houston Police Department and the Texas Rangers. After "exhaustive work" by Harris County's homicide division, the case went cold.

In July 2014, the Cold Case Unit opened the case and the investigation turned up physical evidence recovered at autopsy that linked Edds to the case. They found that Edds had lived close to the crime scene at the time of the homicide. When they interviewed him this year, Edds denied knowing Guillotte, ever having been at the crime scene, or even knowing about the death. He wasn't able to answer authorities' questions about why there would be physical evidence tying him to the case.

Further investigation revealed that Edds had been charged in 1977 for assaulting a different man with a knife after leaving a Montrose bar. That, authorities said, is in addition to his lengthy criminal history that included homicide, burglary, robbery and various drug, alcohol, weapons charges among other violations.

The underlying question is why Edds came to Mississippi.  Authorities said he has family in Waynesboro.

"We had somewhere to start. We had knowledge that he might be familiar with the area," Gilliland said.

Authorities found Edds when they located a vehicle that turned out to be his. He was camping in a pup tent about 1,000 yards from the car. Ashley said it's unlikely that Edds just happened upon the spot.

Back in his days as a game warden, Ashley said, he remembers people from Texas camping in that area.

"I want to think he's been to this deer camp," Ashley said. "When I pulled up, I told the marshals he had to have been involved in this deer camp. There's no doubt he didn't just pull up there. He's been there before."

Follow Therese Apel on Twitter: @TRex21