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Fugitive TV show films DeKalb relatives of shooting victim Linda Yancey
by Gale Horton Gay
gale@dekalbchamp.com
A national television show came to Decatur Saturday, but for the family involved it was without the glamour and excitement often associated with such experiences.
Sandra Hannon and her brother Eugene Thomas sat in the living room of Hannon’s home off Candler Road and told their family’s story of love, loss, suspicion and frustration to a camera crew from America’s Most Wanted TV show.
Their sister Linda Yancey, 46, was killed in June 2008 along with a man who was doing work at her Stone Mountain home, allegedly by her husband Derrick Yancey, a former DeKalb County sheriff’s deputy. Yancey initially told authorities that laborer Marcial Cax Puluc--whom Derrick Yancey had hired--shot and killed his wife and he then shot the worker. Yancey was arrested in August and charged with killing his wife and Puluc.
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On April 4, Yancey is believed to have cut off the electronic ankle monitor he was wearing while under house arrest at his mother’s Jonesboro home. Eleven hours passed before authorities were notified that he had escaped. He had not turned himself in or been recaptured by authorities as of early morning Monday, April 13. Yancey was reportedly sighted on Easter Sunday at the Greyhound bus station in Atlanta, however, he was not located after police searched the area.
Last Saturday, April 11, a modest house on Thrasher Circle swelled as all but three of the nine Thomas siblings, their mother, spouses, other relatives and friends dropped in to share information, observe the filming and support the family.
Thomas described to the TV crew the manner in which his brother-in-law slipped away and was undetected for nearly half a day as “totally unacceptable, deplorable.”
He said he blames Judge Anne Workman’s low bond of $150,000 for Yancey’s escape.
“I have seen in the news people shooting dogs and cats and receiving a higher bond than that,” said Thomas. “I think the bond was ridiculous.”
The three-member television crew stayed at the Hannon home for four hours, filming family members as they looked at old photos of the couple and interviewing family members about the developments in the case.
Hannon said she suspects her brother-in-law received “inside” help but didn’t specify the source of that help. She also said she was concerned that Yancey might attempt to leave the country. She noted that he has relatives in Detroit close to the Canadian border, that he speaks some Spanish and that he once lived and worked in Japan.
“I don’t think they took his passport,” said Hannon. “He’s desperate. I’m pretty sure he has a weapon. I know he doesn’t want to go to prison.”
The America’s Most Wanted segment highlighting the Yancey case is expected to air April 25, 9 p.m. on WAGA-TV if Derrick Yancey’s whereabouts remain unknown. His mug shot is currently displayed on the show’s home page, amw.com.
Hannon said she was concerned about whether people encountering Yancey would recognize him, explaining that the last time she saw him in court several months ago he had a full unkempt afro—markedly different from the clean-cut photo of him that has been publicized.
Hannon noted that April 11 was Derrick Yancey’s 50th birthday.
CLICK HERE FOR Derrick Yancey’s disappearance timeline
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