A man charged with “escalating violent behavior” — and linked to at least three killings in Oklahoma and Alabama — was arrested in Arkansas on Thursday, authorities said.
According to a statement from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Stacy Lee Drake, 50, “was located and arrested this morning in Arkansas by the Morrilton Police Department and the Arkansas State Police.”
“If you look at his criminal history, he has continually escalated his violent behavior,” Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Capt. Jack Kennedy told reporters Thursday. “So he's now responsible for at least three, possibly four murders that we've learned about in the last two months.”
“So I wouldn't be surprised if similar murders remain unsolved in other jurisdictions,” Kennedy said.
“Because of his lifestyle, using false names, having no fixed address, no employment record, changing his appearance and then immediately fleeing to many, many, many states away from his crime scenes,” he said.
Arkansas State Police warned residents in and around Morrilton (which is about 50 miles northwest of Little Rock) to keep an eye out for Drake.
Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Capt. Jack Kennedy said in Alabama that the suspect appeared to be a temporary resident and had previous addresses in Oklahoma and Arizona.
He recently spent several days in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, where A man and woman were killed and a car stolen at a propane gas store Tuesday night, about 120 miles west of Morrilton, local and state authorities said.
He is accused of killing Russell Andrews, a popular Alcoholics Anonymous counselor, 62, around May 14, Tuscaloosa County authorities said.
Kennedy said investigators had learned Drake's name in about 24 hours but did not make it public because they hoped they would be in a stronger position in the case if they were confident detectives did not know his name.
Andrews was shot and killed, shocking the community.
“Nobody had anything bad to say about him,” Kennedy said. “He had been working or volunteering in AA for a long time, and that's probably why he was singled out as the victim, honestly, because he was left behind with this gentleman.”
Drake also has been described as a “suspect” in the death of Phillip Emerson, 56, in El Reno, Oklahoma, Assistant Police Chief Kirk Dickerson said Thursday.
According to Dickerson, police on Friday were initially investigating an “unexpected death” and then concluded that Emerson “had suffered fatal injuries consistent with homicide.”