Deputies captured a Colorado sex offender suspected of the near fatal stabbing of his 12-year-old daughter after he left his hiding place in the mountains to buy hot dogs at a Wallace, Idaho convenience store early this morning.
John “Rollins” Tuggle, 37, of Hayden, was arrested shortly after a Conoco convenience store clerk recognized him at about 1 a.m. and called authorities, said Sheriff Chuck Reynalds of Shoshone County, Idaho.
Tuggle is being held at the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office jail in Wallace for investigation of attempted second degree murder. He was scheduled for his first court appearance this afternoon.
The girl was in serious condition today at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., hospital spokeswoman Pat Servine said.
As Tuggle was buying the hot dogs, he saw the clerk look at his wanted poster that was on the counter. He got nervous and ran out of the store without the food, Reynalds said. The clerk, who noticed the man was dirty and acting suspicious, called 911.
An Idaho State Patrol officer caught Tuggle without incident behind the Wallace High School that was about a block away from the convenience store. Reynalds said Tuggle has been on foot for the past week after abandoning his car 13 miles north of Wallace.
He had been living in the mountains and told authorities he hadn’t eaten in three days. He then scarfed down two plates of food.
Tuggle traveled to Athol, in northern Idaho to visit his daughter, whom he had not seen in 10 years because he had been locked up in an Idaho prison, Reynalds said.
Last week, Tuggle told his ex-wife he was taking his daughter to a mall, but he instead took her to a remote area in the wilderness called the Lost Creek drainage about 30 miles north of Wallace, Reynalds said. She was stabbed all over her body and was near death.
The girl was saved by a family that heard her screaming as they pulled up in a nearby campsite.
Tuggle was convicted in the statutory rape of his 14-year-old sister in law on March 27, 1995. The victim and her family, who live in Idaho, declined to comment last week.
Tuggle was sentenced to 1 1/2 to nine years in state prison, and he was held for the entire nine-year term, said Teresa Jones, spokeswoman for the Idaho Department of Correction.
Tuggle left the Idaho prison on Jan. 20, 2004 and registered as a sex offender in Routt County the following month.
Routt County Sheriff John Warner said officers in his northern Colorado county have been looking for Tuggle since the stabbing.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
