Authorities captured a Colorado sex offender suspected in the near-fatal stabbing of his 12-year-old daughter after he left his hiding place in an Idaho forest to buy hot dogs at a convenience store early Wednesday.
John “Rollins” Tuggle, 37, of Hayden was arrested shortly after a convenience store clerk at the Super Stop Conoco in Wallace, Idaho, recognized him and called authorities, said Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds.
Tuggle is being held on $10 million bail at the Shoshone County Jail for investigation of attempted second-degree murder.
He also faces charges in Colorado because Tuggle left the state without telling authorities, as required by law for sex offenders.
Idaho and Colorado authorities said they also will investigate the girl’s mother, who allowed the convicted sex offender to take the girl with him.
“Obviously, we have some concerns with her,” Reynalds said. “She will be interviewed.”
The girl, who was stabbed five times on July 20 and left to die, was in serious condition Wednesday at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Wash. Tests are being done to determine whether she was sexually assaulted.
Conoco clerk Sue Boren told deputies that at about 12:30 a.m., a filthy man who was acting suspiciously walked into the store wearing a bandana, camouflage clothing and a canteen on his belt.
“It is not hunting season,” Boren said. “I thought something was suspicious about him.”
As Tuggle was buying hot dogs, he saw Boren look down at a wanted poster with his picture on it – which was taped to the counter – and then look back up at him. He ran out of the store, and Boren called police.
Minutes later, an Idaho State Police officer arrested Tuggle behind a school a block away from the store.
Reynalds said Tuggle had been on foot for about a week after abandoning his car 17 miles south of Wallace. The car was discovered Sunday.
Tuggle was living in the thick forest just south of town in northern Idaho and hadn’t eaten in three days. After his arrest, he scarfed down two plates of food, Reynalds said.
Tuggle was convicted of raping a 13-year-old female relative in 1994.
According to minutes from Tuggle’s parole board hearing, the girl became pregnant from the rape.
Tuggle was sentenced to between 18 months and nine years in prison.
The parole board decided Tuggle should be held for the maximum time of nine years based on his attitude during an August 1996 parole hearing. “The subject said his parole plan is to parole to his wife’s house,” the board noted then. “He said he was mad and he wanted to get back at someone; his (female relative) was there.
“… He does not participate in programming (prison treatments) because the facilitators are ‘idiots.’ He said if he wants to get counseling, he will do it when he gets out of prison.”
Tuggle left the Idaho prison on Jan. 20, 2004, and registered as a sex offender in Routt County, Colo., the following month. He moved in with his brother, Chris, who has three children. Chris Tuggle also is a registered sex offender, Routt County Sheriff John Warner said.
Warner said he was uneasy about the living arrangements at the Tuggle home and had his deputies check on the family every three months.
But Colorado’s registration law doesn’t restrict where sex offenders can live or whom they can live with.
Neither of the men was on parole or probation.
“Our hands are tied,” Warner said.
Tuggle, who worked as a house painter in Routt County, traveled to Athol in northern Idaho late last month to visit his daughter, whom he had not seen in 10 years, Reynalds said.
Last week, Tuggle told his former wife that 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.
The girl was saved by a family that heard her screaming as they pulled up in a nearby campsite.
In a three-hour interview with Routt County deputies, Chris Tuggle said his brother had told him that if he were ever arrested again, he would hide in the woods, where he had stayed for as long as a month at a time, authorities said.
Routt County officials watched the Tuggle house for signs of John Tuggle’s return. A dragnet in Idaho included about 75 state and federal law officers and K9 dogs.
Tuggle’s daughter is recuperating physically, Reynalds said, but “mentally, she has a long road ahead of her.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
