GUILTY SC - Alice Donovan, 44, Conway, 12 November 2002

Doyle

New Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2003
Messages
868
Reaction score
75
Website
www.
Jennifer Warner fantasized her mother would turn up somewhere with amnesia, "just like a soap opera."

But faced with a guilty plea and confessions 18 months later, she knows Alice Donovan is dead.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/8625380.htm

One of the men charged with killing Alice Donovan pleaded guilty to her abduction and death Friday, on what would have been her 46th birthday. He blamed the slaying on his co-defendant
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/8619819.htm
 
A Kentucky man who grew up in West Virginia pleaded guilty on Thursday to carjacking resulting in death in the disappearance of a Marshall University student during a multistate crime spree in 2002.

Chadrick Fulks, 28, of Lewisburg, Ky., entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Huntington. In exchange, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. U.S. District Judge Chuck Chambers sentenced Fulks to life in prison. There is no parole in the federal system.

U.S. Attorney Kasey Warner said prosecutors have reached the same plea deal with Branden Basham, 25, of Madisonville, Ky. A plea hearing for Basham has not been scheduled.

Both men were convicted and sentenced to death last year in separate federal trials in South Carolina in the death of Alice Donovan, 44, of Galivants Ferry, S.C. Donovan was kidnapped from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, S.C., on Nov. 14, 2002, 10 days after Fulks and Basham escaped. Her body also has never been found.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/12027559.htm
 
As I stated in Samantha's thread, I wish these two jack offs would tel the families where their bodies are. They deserve at least that.
 
Human Bones could help Solve Cold Case

Authorities are not ruling out the possibility the bones belong to Alice Donovan. Donovan was kidnapped from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, South Carolina back in 2002. Two prison escapees abducted her. They told authorities they hid her body in Brunswick County. Despite months of searching, Donovan's body had never been found.
 
http://mothersarevanishing.blogspot.com/

Alice Donovan, Her Daughters' Words


It has been many years since there has been any public information about the disappearance of Alice Donovan, although her family, especially her two lovely daughters, still have the ultimate unanswered question...Where is she?

Even though the two murderers have been convicted and sit on death row, they refuse to be specific and tell this family where they so callously left her. What kind of evil can perpetuate something as uncaring as these two individuals?

The words below are from Alice's daughter. These words will give you just a peek of the pain this young lady has gone through, and how she is only now getting strong enough to work on healing her heart. She misses her Mother and only wants her home to rest in peace.

Still Waiting........

And yes almost six years later we are still waiting to bring her home. Just thinking about it brings the tears to my eyes.

Sigh..Where is she? All we want is to bring her home and give her a proper resting place. She doesn't deserve to out in the middle of the woods on the side of some road. As I write this post the tears fall. So many years of the not knowing just tares you up inside.

There have been moments over the past six years that I have longed to have my mother there, by my side. For support, compassion, laughs, love, a shoulder to cry on. A mothers love. I crave it, I miss it so badly.. I miss my mom, Alice..

Will she ever be found? I hope so..

This post as it turns out is really not a discussion it's more of my feelings. I'm sorry I got carried away with my emotions..It's something I have been needing to do know for a long time. I have surpressed my feelings about my mom for so long that they are just begging to be released.

I can't change what has happened to me, my family, or my mom. I can only help others in my situation and hope that I have something to give them. Even if it is only awareness and compassion for how they feel. Because I do know what it feels like to have your world turned upside down in just a blink of an eye....

To read more about Alice Donovan and many other Missing Mothers please feel free to read about them at http://www.peace4missing.ning.com
 
I live in the area where Alice was left behind. Almost every day, I pass the station where the thugs stopped for gas, and think how sad it is that nobody saw her in the vehicle. Sometimes, when I'm driving on our rural roads, surrounded by pine trees, I think about her and wonder if she will ever be found. The woods is so thick, and it would be so easy to hide a person. Somebody, someday, will come across her. I just hope that it's in our lifetime, and that you will know that she is found.

I pray God's peace on you and your family.
 
I live in the area where Alice was left behind. Almost every day, I pass the station where the thugs stopped for gas, and think how sad it is that nobody saw her in the vehicle. Sometimes, when I'm driving on our rural roads, surrounded by pine trees, I think about her and wonder if she will ever be found. The woods is so thick, and it would be so easy to hide a person. Somebody, someday, will come across her. I just hope that it's in our lifetime, and that you will know that she is found.

I pray God's peace on you and your family.

Warrcat, thank you for the kind words for Alice's daughters. I have given her the link to all the sites I posted this and I hope she will see your response. I'm sure it will show her that her Mother has not been forgotten and that there are so many of us still here wondering right along with her.
 
I live in Conway, SC. I moved here after this happened. When I first read about this, I tried tracking the movements of these thugs after they took Alice. I shop at the very same Walmart she was abducted from.

This is very sad.
 
It's good to see others from the area! Alice's daughters are so special and they miss their mom so much. This tragedy has taken such a toll on the family, but according to her daughter, they are starting to somewhat heal. There is never a complete healing for them, as long as she is still out there somewhere. They just want to bring her home where they will know where she is all the time. That would bring them such a relief in the grief that they live with every day.
 
I would just like to take this moment and say thank you to all of you who posted warm words and thoughts for my mom Alice Donovan and our family. It truely warms my heart to see that after all these years my mom and our family are not forgotten!

I guess I sort of thought that after the trials of Fulks and Basham everyone would just carry on and forget. Lord knows I tried. But it's not something you can easily tuk away under your bed and pretend it doesn't exist. The pain is still there, her presence not here, and an image of her in my memory is always there.

Once again thank you all for still keeping us in your thoughts and not forgetting my mom.
 
It's so good to see you made it here, princess!!

I hope everyone here who is in our area will be able to attend the Cue Center stop in Whiteville, NC honoring Carol Batten Dowless and others missing from the NC area, including Alice Donovan. Show your support for these families and for Cue Center who does amazing things to help find missing persons.

Here is their schedule of stops and the names of the missing person's family who is sponsoring each stop. There will be many more honored at each stop. Please come if there is a stop near you.................

http://ncmissingpersons.org/otrr_trip.htm
 
I pray that those scumbags will finally tell you where they put your mother so y'all can lay her to rest close to you. God bless you all, you're in my thoughts and prayers.
 
I pray that those scumbags will finally tell you where they put your mother so y'all can lay her to rest close to you. God bless you all, you're in my thoughts and prayers.

I wish they would tell us as well. But I don't see that happening because I think that they think if they don't tell there might be a chance that they could get there death sentenced appealled for the no body no proof. However they have confessed to killing her. Although Fulks said that Basham did it and that he was just there. Who ever did the actual execution is not relevent to us. He was there so he is just as guilty if you ask me.

This might sound bad but I am soooo looking forward to the day that those boys are injected with their death serum! I just don't think it's fair that they get to die a less painful death then my mother did. An eye for an eye. But at least I get the satisfaction that they WILL die. At least my mothers murderers were caught and tried. So many people have not had that same fate as I. And I feel for them emensly! It's horrible having someone you love or know be murdered and not found but to not know who did it or have their executioners out there still at large. I don't think I could deal with that. Maybe I could but I am relieved that I did not have to deal with those issues.

Thank you for thinking of us. (((hugs)))
 
I think that they think if they don't tell there might be a chance that they could get there death sentenced appealled for the no body no proof.

Unlikely. "No body" homicides are not at all uncommon anymore, especially with DNA and other forensic technology. I know of several people executed in cases where the body was never found. Evidence of murder is evidence of murder, with or without a corpse.

All the "no body" homicides profiled on the Charley Project are here: http://www.charleyproject.org/corpus/
 
MEMORIAL BENEFIT FOR ALICE DONOVAN......SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15

If you live in the area, please come and show your support!!

Peace4 the Missing

http://mothersarevanishing.blogspot.com/

It has been six long years since the murder and disappearance of Alice Donovan from the WalMart parking lot in Conway, SC. Her remains have never been found. The effect this has had on her daughters and remaining family has been astounding.

Issac Bailey of the Sun News wrote an excellent and informative article which was published on the front page Sunday, November 9, outlining interviews with Alice's daughters and also one of the convicted murderers, Chadrick Fulks, who is on death row.

Myrtle Beach Sun News

This case was the first Federal Death Penalty case prosecuted in South Carolina.

The daughters of Alice Donovan are holding a memorial benefit in her honor Saturday, November 15 to remember the 6th year anniversary of her being missing.

The memorial benefit will be held at Breakroom Billiards on Hwy 544, Conway, SC, 7pm-10pm. The public is welcome to participate.

Proceeds in honor of Alice Donovan will be donated to CUE Center for Missing Persons based in Wilmington, NC, an organization which participated in the original searches for Alice. Donations to CUE Center can also be made online at: CUE Center

Sponsored by Peace4 the Missing and the family and friends of Alice Donovan
 
Casualties of Crime: Alice Donovan
By Issac Bailey - ibailey@thesunnews.com





Angie Gilchrist and Brandon Basham both came into the world on Sept. 14. Both grew up in troubled homes. Each had a father who drank too much.

Both now live in the shadow of a murdered woman.

Six years ago this week, their fates became inescapably intertwined. On Nov. 14, 2002, Basham and Chadrick Fulks - prison escapees from Kentucky - kidnapped Gilchrist's mother from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, sparking a search that continues to this day. The tragic consequences of Alice Donovan's disappearance and death linger, unraveling the lives of families and friends on both sides.

"It seemed as if there was any weakness in the family, it broke," said Judy Ezell, Donovan's 54-year-old sister.

Basham and Fulks now sit in federal prison awaiting the day a concoction of legal drugs will be injected into their veins.

Gilchrist is fighting her way back from addictions she turned to for comfort in the aftermath of her mother's disappearance.

Through interviews and letters exchanged over several weeks, some of the key players in the tragedy shared their emotions, frustrations and insights with The Sun News.

Setting the stage

Long before Donovan's disappearance on that November day, the circumstances of Gilchrist's and Basham's pasts set the stage for their futures.

Basham's mother blew marijuana smoke in his face when he was 2 years old to calm him and shared drugs with him throughout his childhood.

He hopped from state-run home to psychiatric center to state-run home before ending up in prison.

Gilchrist's father beat her mother and told his daughter of his numerous drug escapades - to scare her away from addictions, she said - until the day, as a teenager, she was called to the hospital to identify his body after he had injected and inhaled a deadly concoction of illegal drugs.

Gilchrist, now 32, began acting out. She dabbled in marijuana and alcohol for the first time at the age of 17, the kind of behavior that led to her father's death.

Donovan grounded her. Gilchrist left home, hopping from Maine to New Hampshire to Massachusetts, wandering from friend to fast-food job to friend, partying and drinking every step of the way.

Her mother married Barry Donovan, whom she met at a factory job in New Hampshire. They moved to the Grand Strand. Gilchrist and her sister, Jennifer Warner, eventually followed.

They didn't know that decision would later involve them in a two-week crime spree that began Nov. 4, 2002, when Basham and Fulks escaped using bed sheets, two blankets and a basketball. Basham was serving time for forgery; Fulks was facing several charges including domestic violence and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Burying the pain

On Nov. 14, 2002, the day her mother disappeared, Gilchrist broke. She began drowning herself in drugs and alcohol.

Her over-indulgences before her mother's death turned into full-bore addictions and destructive behavior after.

"Before my feet even hit the floor in the morning, I did two lines of coke," she said.

That was during and after the fruitless, agonizing and ultimately empty searches for her mother, during and after the period when her hopes were raised by periodic media reports about remains being found, only to be disappointed when they were determined to be a man's or an animal's, not her mother's.

That was while she worked as a waitress and tried to raise small children before she, their father and the S.C. Department of Social Services determined those kids needed to be away from her.

The trial for Basham and Fulks began in June 2004. From June to November, it went on ... and on, the gruesome and sometimes tedious details kept coming, kept flowing from the witness stand into Gilchrist's psyche, from the jury selection to the handing down of Basham's death sentence in the fall of 2004. Vodka and beer and drugs carried Gilchrist through.

"I just wanted to be numb," she said.

She heard attorneys describe how Basham and Fulks kidnapped her mother, how Basham walked with her into the woods and came back alone.

She heard an FBI agent testify that Basham said Donovan's body was "dragging distance from the road."

She heard how Basham and Fulks let others go free during their multistate crime spree. They kidnapped one man, stole his vehicle, tied him to a tree with duct tape and apologized to him for the inconvenience.

She learned how Basham thought about kidnapping a woman and her daughter from a Kentucky Wal-Mart but changed his mind and apologized for bothering them.

During those trials, she heard experts argue that Basham had a damaged brain and a poor and abusive childhood, and how that should mitigate his punishment.

Gilchrist heard Fulks' oldest brother scream and curse that his brother was "not a monster," forcing Gilchrist to acknowledge the pain also being felt by those who love the men who murdered her mother.

"I have compassion for their families," she said. "But I'm still angry."

Moving on with life

"It's like being in this movie," Gilchrist said. "You are the main character, and you don't want the ... role."

Nor did the rest of her family want to play roles in a drama co-authored by two prison escapees.

Barry Donovan didn't want his wife of almost 10 years to be taken away so violently, so confoundingly randomly, or at all. He initially held out hope that she would return.

"We just have to assume the worst won't happen," he said then.

It was his relentless searching in the early hours of the disappearance that convinced police to get involved sooner than protocol otherwise allows or encourages.

Since then, he has sued Wal-Mart and the prison from which Basham and Fulks escaped, securing two undisclosed settlements. He remarried two years ago and lives in the home he and his former wife built.

Gilchrist and Jennifer Warner, Alice Donovan's daughters, remember days when they all - Barry, Jennifer, Angie and Alice - would sit on the back porch, throw back a few beers, laugh and enjoy each other's company.

Three years after his wife's death, Barry bought a bar: Gilchrist and Warner became its bartenders and managers.

But the bar is now closed, another sign of the family's post-murder difficulties.

Sometime after that, Barry Donovan was instrumental in sending Gilchrist to an intensive in-house rehabilitation center in Colorado to rid her of drug and alcohol addictions.

But he no longer has contact with his former wife's daughters. The once-close stepdaughter-stepfather relationship has dissolved into an as-of-now unbridged divide.

Today, he doesn't want to talk about the losses that began when Basham and Fulks arrived in Horry County.

Still, Gilchrist said she won't ever forget the role he played in initiating the search for her mother, won't forget that even though they have lost contact, he helped pull her through.

"The crux of it is that he wants to put the whole thing behind him and get on with the rest of his life," said Ezell, Alice Donovan's sister.

Painful details resurface

Anger, resentment, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are often part of the legacy of violent crime, research suggests.

"Sadly to say, a great percentage of victims in circumstances such as the Donovans do tend to follow a destructive path, be it drugs, alcohol or just plain destructive behavior as a means to cope," said Catina Hipp, the law enforcement victim advocate for the Conway Police Department.

"Some families never recover and spend the rest of their lives mourning and/or searching for their loved one," she said.

Gilchrist has periodic episodes of memory loss. During research on her mother's death a few weeks ago, she came across the testimony which showed that Basham raped Alice before killing her.

Even though she sat through hours of court proceedings during which details of the rape emerged, she cried sitting at her laptop when reading the account in old news reports.

She had not remembered. She had been too drunk, her mind too muddled by the drugs. She felt guilty for not remembering.

"I shouldn't have been a drunk," Gilchrist said. "I shouldn't have been an addict."

One of Alice's granddaughters was 6 at the time of Alice's disappearance. She started making sure all the doors and windows in her house were locked. She feared being alone. She realized that if a 44-year-old woman could be snatched, so could a 6-year-old little girl.

"That's the one thing that sticks out, the impact on the kids," Ezell said. "We do everything we can to protect her."

Ezell read a letter from Alice into the court record that recounted how her sister endured abuse and molestation by a family member.

She did it because she wanted Alice's voice to be present in the proceedings, wanted them to know that while Alice had a troubled childhood - like Basham and Fulks - she had overcome and had become a positive influence.

But some family members were taken aback. They said Ezell aired painful, private moments and put the penalty phase of the trial at risk.

"Some of us don't speak anymore," she said. "It's kind of rough. Expressing love with one another was not something we were into doing. There weren't hugs. There was always a sort of competitive attitude in the family.

"Because of those differences, we don't even talk to each other in an effort to keep the peace with each other."

The guilty parties

Fulks has been trying to make peace with his role in the crimes, though, he still says he did not participate in the killing of either Donovan or Samantha Burns, a West Virginia college student also murdered after their escape. Her body, too, has never been found.

"I can't sit here and make excuses for my actions throughout those 17 days in November of 2002 because my involvement was horrible, and I deserve to be punished," he said in response to questions asked of him in a letter sent by The Sun News. "But I never took the lives of either of those women. ... If society thinks I deserve to die for my involvement, then that's what my fate will be. And to be honest, I welcome my death, and that's why I have recently dropped my appeals and asked for a prompt execution date. I live with this 24/7, and for the longest time I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror."

He said he is depressed and regrets causing his mother stress. The crimes were not planned, he said, but he was high on "meth," which clouded his judgment.

He has vowed to help Gilchrist find her mother's remains. He has given police information in the past about Donovan's whereabouts, but the searches turned up nothing.

"I've done all I can to give them some kind of closure, but nothing I say is believed, so that's left me with nothing else but to have my sentence carried out in order to give the [families] of both Alice and Samantha closure," Fulks wrote. "I feel like the boy who cried wolf all his life then when he did tell the truth, no one believed him. ... No one wants to give me the time of day."

Basham has been trying to speak with people in the outside world, if only for a mental escape from his 6-foot-by-13-foot cell in the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.

That's what a short Internet profile Basham wrote about himself reveals.

Media access to prisoners on federal death row has been limited since Timothy McVeigh gave an interview to "60 Minutes," making it difficult to describe life there.

Inmate David Paul Hammer, who has been suing for several years to loosen those restrictions, co-founded deathrow speaks.info, a Web site that provides a glimpse into the lives of the only two prisoners on federal death row for crimes committed in South Carolina.

Basham did not respond to a letter from The Sun News seeking comment. But his Death Row Speaks profile describes him as the youngest of two children, his sister being much older. He works out often to "stay in tip-top physical shape by working out three to five times a week," it said.

"My physical description is: solid, athletic build with great muscle tone, 5'10, 192 pounds, brown hair and eyes," the profile reads under photos of Basham showing off his biceps.

It says his interests include beaches, the outdoors - like Alice Donovan - cycling and "living life to the fullest when possible."

"I am a single white guy, never married, and I've not fathered any children," Basham said. "These are things which I think about a lot. I'll likely never have an opportunity to experience a normal life on the outside. That's a depressing and disturbing prospect."

"Our mother died this past July (2005), which has left a void in my heart," he said. "I hope that someone reading this profile will decide to write me."

Gilchrist and Warner read it. They didn't write him.

It just angered them that the man who murdered their mother seemed to want sympathy because his mother died. And they are angry because they can't complete their mourning.

"I need to find my mom," Warner said.

'Life goes on'

Gilchrist also wants closure. She isn't waiting for Basham or Fulks to provide it. She's spearheading a fundraiser for the Community United Effort, a group which helps search for missing people.

It will be held Saturday - one day after the sixth anniversary of Alice Donovan's disappearance.

The benefit, which will include karaoke, raffles and other fun and games, is the next step in Gilchrist's quest to regain her footing.

She's now married to a man who she says is gentle and "does not judge me for my imperfections and accepts me, good, bad and indifferent."

Ezell said that while her sister's death strained and even broke some family relationships, a few other bonds were strengthened.

"My relationship with God is now closer even than before," she said. "Not that I would want to go through this again. I don't want to test it. When my faith was weak during that time, [God] held me."

They want everyone to know that even during the worst days, there were good moments. They received help - prayers, letters, e-mails, financial aid - from people throughout the country.

They appreciated how hundreds of strangers took to the streets and into the woods to search for their mother, a woman who was a stranger to them.

They want everyone to know it still hurts, "but not like it used to," that though not every family issue has been solved or every imperfection erased, things are getting better, even if in fits and starts.

Their journey is still an uphill one, but the climb seems a little less steep than six years ago.

"Losing a loved one creates a huge void in a person's life that is hard, if not nearly impossible, to fill," said Hipp, the victim's advocate.

"Murder is a senseless act for which an adequate answer to the question of 'why' can never truly be answered. I have seen those rare cases where the [victim's family] uses their tragedy as a springboard and becomes a very productive member of society."

Gilchrist wants everyone to know they plan to continue searching - to give her mother a proper burial, to make sure she's never forgotten - and they want to help others find their loved ones.

"We want people to know that even when you are stretched to the fiber of your very being, life goes on," Ezell said. "And you still find some measure of joy in between."


ONLINE

Go to MyrtleBeachOnline.com to read letters Chadrick Fulks wrote to The Sun News columnist Issac Bailey from prison and to view a photo gallery of the search for Alice Donovan.

If you go

What | Fundraiser for the Community United Effort, a Wilmington, N.C.-based group that helps search for missing people

When | 7-10 p.m. Saturday

Details | Karaoke, raffles and other games

Where | Breakroom Billiards, S.C. 544 next to Food Lion Plaza, Conway

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/663055.html
 
[URL="http://www.scnow.com/scp/news/local/grand_strand/article/hunters_find_skeletal_remains_in_patch_of_horry_county_woods/24942/"URL]

I know that people want the answers to this horrible crime.
 
Kareem Ward of Aynor, SC . He went missing in June of 2007.

Time will tell , so we just wait.
 
Sources: Donovan’s killer led searchers to remains

**Snipped**

"...Sources close to the Alice Donovan case tell News13 a series of letters and photographs from one of the men convicted of killing Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, led search crews to skeletal remains in Horry County..."


"...The founder of the CUE missing persons search group, Monica Caison, spent the past several months writing and receiving letters from Fulks, who currently sits on death row in a federal prison, a source told News13..."

"...On Sunday Jan. 19, Caison and CUE searchers conducted a search of the area and later discovered a human skull, according to sources close to the Donovan case.

The skull was turned over to the Horry County Police Department, but the county police never made that information public.

In another search Saturday Jan. 24, CUE search crews discovered an arm bone, according to News13 sources..."

Complete article at link:
http://www.scnow.com/scp/news/local/grand_strand/article/sources_donovan_killer_led_search_crews_to_remains/30019/
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
167
Guests online
1,101
Total visitors
1,268

Forum statistics

Threads
589,937
Messages
17,927,904
Members
228,006
Latest member
Suesleuth
Back
Top