The mystery behind the oldest active prison-fugitive case in Colorado may now be solved.
No one is hoping more that’s the case than Gary Heggs, the St. Charles, Mo., attorney who has been arrested a dozen times since a thief stole his driver’s license and was incarcerated using Heggs’ name as an alias.
The fugitive appears to be Carl Arthur DeRosier, who raised three girls and worked as a supervisor in a Birmingham Steel Corp. mill in Bourbonnais, Ill., for decades. He died seven years ago, according to his daughter, Kristin DeRosier, 25.
Heggs said he was thrilled on Wednesday when he got a call from DeRosier, who told him her father made a death-bed confession claiming to be the fugitive.
“I’m hoping it’s true. She said she was 100 percent positive,” Heggs said.
In a later interview with The Denver Post, DeRosier, a Florida resident, said she came across a Post story late Tuesday night about Heggs’ identity-theft ordeal.
“I felt horrible for him,” DeRosier said. “I can’t even imagine how that felt for him.”
Katherine Sanguinetti, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, said authorities must compare fingerprints taken when DeRosier was arrested in an alcohol case shortly before he died with those taken in a prison booking 37 years ago to confirm it’s the same person before closing the case.
Heggs’ identity-theft nightmare began in 1971 when his wallet containing his driver’s license with no picture was stolen in Chicago. The thief traveled to Denver, where on Christmas Day 1971 he was caught burglarizing an apartment at 1560 Downing St.
Denver police were presented with a man with many aliases: Dozier Slay Jr., Edward DeRosier (Carl DeRosier’s father’s name) and Arthur DeRosier (the name Carl went by).
Police decided that the man’s driver’s license — which was actually Heggs’ — gave his real identity.
The scruffy-haired man known as Heggs was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was sent to Buena Vista, where he had an appendectomy, leaving a scar on his lower abdomen. He escaped Feb. 25, 1973.
In 1976, DeRosier got married in Illinois. The same year, Heggs was attending college in Illinois when he was arrested the first time by an Illinois State Patrol trooper.
Facing extradition to Colorado, Heggs proved he was not the dangerous fugitive Colorado authorities sought by dropping his “drawers” and showing he didn’t have a scar.
Over the next 34 years, Heggs was stopped at airports, on highways and tracked down to his house and law office by authorities tightly gripping their guns.
The man with whom DeRosier’s daughters grew up claimed he never left Illinois in his life, worked at the steel mill, did Elvis impersonations, played in softball tournaments and doted on his daughters.
“His life revolved around his family. He was an awesome, awesome man,” said Kristin DeRosier.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
