A dangerous Florida criminal who was just released from jail is back into custody after he allegedly beat an elderly woman to death and raped and assaulted another.
The surviving victim managed to escape from David Earl Gipson Monday afternoon, telling a passerby that the 40-year-old suspect tried to lock her up in an “oversized toolbox.”
The victim said Gipson showed up at her home late Sunday and “became irate” before bounding and gagging her.
Gipson beat the woman, raped her, and threatened her with a handgun.
The assailant then attacked the woman’s mother-in-law, 74-year-old Lettie Cooper Collins, beating her face and head and duct taping her mouth.
“She was beat to a pulp,” said Washington Sheriff Kevin Crews.
Collins was found dead, Crews said, and a multi-agency manhunt ended with Gipson’s arrest on Tuesday.
“The dog teams didn’t give up, and [Gipson] didn’t give up. He kept running and kept running,” the sheriff said.
“At one point, we came to a place where he got down in a mud hole and tried to cover himself in mud, you see, and all he’s doing is trying to throw the scent of the dog off. He was just trying to avoid capture, but it didn’t work, and we got him.”
