An ordeal that began Sunday ended with a kidnapped woman’s desperate escape and the subsequent arrest of the career-criminal suspect.
According to WTVT-TV in Tampa Bay, Florida, a brave woman survived a violent abduction and rape, followed by hours of torture, only to escape and help lead authorities to the man who allegedly brutalized her.
Washington County Sheriff Kevin Crews described the woman’s condition following her escape and recovery Monday around 5:20 p.m.
“She was naked. Still handcuffed and duct-taped around her mouth,” Crews said at a news conference.
According to the victim, 40-year-old David Earl Gipson of Caryville showed up at her house Sunday, accused her husband and brother-in-law of stealing from him, and began taking items from her house.
Gipson then allegedly knocked the victim to the ground, stripped her naked, and handcuffed her. The suspect then allegedly beat the victim’s 74-year-old mother-in-law, who authorities later found dead at the scene.
According to the victim, the suspect then put her in her mother-in-law’s vehicle, duct-taped her mouth, and drove her to his house, where he sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her.
Finally, Gipson allegedly tortured the victim by stuffing her, hogtied, into a storage container in his shed. The torture lasted throughout the night Sunday.
“He put a rope over her neck and tucked her legs up underneath her,” Sheriff Crews explained. “If you can picture what a hog tie looks like, that’s what he did to her. She stated she got very hot and thought she was going to suffocate and die.”
Do you think you could escape a similar situation?
The victim, however, got her legs free and managed to kick her way out of the container.
“She got out of the shed and then ran for her life,” Crews said. “At one point she told us that once she was away from the house, she used a tree to remove her, she’s handcuffed behind her back, she used a tree to remove the duct tape from around her mouth. At that time, she made her way to the edge of a roadway where a passerby saw her. He stopped, picked her up and immediately called 911.”
According to WKRG-TV in Mobile, Alabama, a “multi-agency manhunt” ended with Gipson’s arrest around 3 p.m. Tuesday.
“The dog teams didn’t give up, and [Gipson] didn’t give up,” Crews said of the manhunt.
“He kept running and kept running. At one point, we came to a place where he got down in a mud hole and tried to cover himself in mud, you see. And he’s all he’s doing is trying to throw the scent of the dog off. He was just trying to avoid capture, but it didn’t work, and we got him.”
They got him.
Now, according to WJHG-TV in Panama City, Florida, Gipson faces charges of murder, aggravated battery, sexual assault, and kidnapping.
Incredibly, the suspect’s criminal record includes 33 prior felony charges and eight prison sentences between 1999 and March 2025, per WTVT.
One wonders, of course, why our system permits career criminals to walk free. Redemption may come at any point, but eight times incarcerated? Alas, that is a broader and more complicated question.
The real story here involves an elderly woman’s tragic death and the courage of a brutalized victim, whose desperate escape undoubtedly ensured that her alleged attacker will never hurt anyone again.
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