Hostage kills Iowa prison escapee who shot deputy

Sharyn Jackson | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Bedford, Iowa, residents thankful for end of manhunt Residents of the small community of Bedford, Iowa, breathe a sigh of relief at the death Aug. 20, 2013, of an armed fugitive who held a couple hostage for 4 hours.

Rodney Eugene Long escaped from the correctional facility early Friday

Officials say the deputy that Long shot is expected to recover fully from his wounds

One resident in this southwest Iowa town called the man who killed Long a hero

BEDFORD, Iowa — An escaped convict broke into the home of a southwest Iowa couple Monday night and held them at gunpoint for several hours before one of the hostages shot and killed the intruder, police said Tuesday.

Rodney Eugene Long, 38, broke out of the Clarinda Correctional Facility about 20 miles away on Friday. He is accused of shooting Taylor County deputy Sunday night after stealing a gun in a home burglary and led police on a 40-minute chase, triggering a massive manhunt Monday in the area.

Around 10:15 p.m. CT Monday, Long broke into the small, one-story home of a retired prison guard and his wife, who were asleep in their bedroom. Long held the couple, Jerome and Carolyn Mauderly, in their bedroom for about four hours as he wandered through the house, disabling their landline phone and using their cellphone although officials did not say whom Long called.

Police suspect that Long was gathering supplies to continue his escape. He was armed with a semi-automatic handgun.

"As the situation wore on, a decision was made by the Mauderlys that they were going to defend themselves," said Mitch Mortvedt, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation special agent in charge.

The Mauderlys had a shotgun in the house and eventually decided to retrieve it, Mortvedt said. Jerome Mauderly, 71, shot and killed Long in the couple's kitchen. Carolyn Mauderly, 66, called 911 at about 2:10 a.m. Tuesday.

Officers who responded found Long lying face down with one wound. The Mauderlys were uninjured.

Jerome Mauderly had been a farmer and a prison guard in Maryville, Mo., before his retirement. The town about 25 miles from Bedford has both a county jail and Maryville Treatment Center, a minimum security state prison for male substance-abuse offenders.

Rosalyn Cummings, 62, a lifelong friend of the couple, described Jerome Mauderly as "a very nice man, very quiet and calm."

"He's a great guy, and I feel sorry for him because I think it would be very difficult," she said, adding that he's a deacon in his church.

On Monday, police had searched several area homes for Long, whom they considered armed and dangerous. They searched the Mauderly home and outbuildings three times, last at 11 a.m.

Residents of Taylor County, which has a population of about 6,300, reported taking precautions from locking their doors to escorting one another to their vehicles as they awaited news of a capture.

The wounded deputy, Dan Wyckoff, 33, remained in an Omaha, Neb., hospital in stable condition Tuesday with injuries that are not life threatening, officials said. He is expected to recover fully, and they credit his survival to wearing a protective vest.

"It definitely saved his life, or at least saved him from serious, serious injury," Mortvedt said.

Long is the first person to escape from the Clarinda Correctional Facility since 1997, officials said. Long's escape was the first this year from any Iowa prison.

Authorities earlier gave this account of how the manhunt unfolded:

Long escaped from the prison sometime between 4 and 7 a.m. CT Friday.

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On Sunday night, he was spotted walking along Iowa 2, just east of New Market, between Clarinda and Bedford. Taylor County deputies responded.

Wyckoff, who has been with the department for two years, arrived first. When Wyckoff got out of his vehicle, Long allegedly shot the deputy twice, once in the left arm and once in his abdomen, stole the deputy's unmarked truck and fled.

A second deputy picked up Wyckoff moments later and then pursued Long, officials said. He maintained the pursuit until other law enforcement agencies arrived to assist, then took Wyckoff to a waiting ambulance.

Other officers continued chasing Long and exchanged gunfire with him during the 40-minute chase, which ended when Long rolled the vehicle several times. He fled on foot into nearby fields.

Authorities could not say how many shots were fired.

Officers from more than a dozen agencies in Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska combed the area searching for Long. The Iowa State Patrol and Nebraska State Patrol aided the search in aircraft. Officials checked houses and outbuildings in the area.

After Long's death, the head of Iowa's public employees union said the state's corrections director should be fired.

Corrections Director John "Baldwin has refused to acknowledge the severe understaffing in the State of Iowa's correctional system," said President Danny Homan of Council 61 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents about 40,000 Iowa public employees. "Instead, he has reconfigured the inmate classification system to quickly and recklessly push more inmates towards less secure settings or towards parole."

Homan described Long as a repeat offender who had his probation revoked but was transferred from a medium-security facility to a minimum-security facility after only a short period. Long's lengthy criminal background had included convictions on drug, burglary and robbery charges.

For Casey Riedel, 33, Long's death is more complicated because her brothers grew up with him. She moved away and hasn't spoken to him since 1996.

"He was quiet and polite," she said. "Nice, well mannered, would do anything for anybody."

Watching this town's fear of Long grow in the past few days was painful for her because of her personal connection to him.

"At some points, I wished he would come out of the cornfield into my yard so I could talk to him," Riedel said.

When Long was at large, residents remained wary.

Josie Gray, a waitress at the Junction Cafe here, said when she went outside to lock the doors on her family's vehicles Sunday, an acquaintance stood guard on the porch with a gun.

Mortvedt said numerous Bedford residents armed themselves since Long's escape from prison.

Some left town in fear, said resident Mick Ware, 68.

"The community is grateful, law enforcement is grateful, because this risk is gone," Ware said.

He called Jerome Mauderly a hero.

Contributing: Regina Zilbermints, Jason Noble and William Petroski, The Des Moines Register