Published: March 11, 2009 09:40 am      

Springtown kidnapping suspect caught in Rains County

Galen Scott

gscott@weatherforddemocrat.com

The second man wanted in connection with a 2007 kidnapping and attempted bank robbery in Springtown was recently apprehended by authorities.

According to reports, Cary Deon McGowan, 49, of Fort Worth, was located in Rains County March 4.

Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said a Crime Stoppers tip placed McGowan at a relative’s home in Fort Worth and helped investigators identify a suspect vehicle.

McGowan was caught when alert Sheriff’s deputies stopped a similar vehicle in Rains County and detained the occupants for identification.

McGowan and his alleged accomplice, Gary Huddleston, are charged with two counts each of aggravated kidnapping and conspiracy to commit bank robbery.

Huddleston remains in custody at the Justice Center in lieu of $275,000 bail.

McGowan and Huddleston allegedly held a bank employee and her husband against their will at gunpoint overnight intending to use the employee the next morning to commit an armed robbery at the Wells Fargo bank branch in Springtown.

According to court records, the plan fell through and the female victim was let go, while her husband remained bound inside their home. The woman reportedly flagged down a state trooper and told him what happened.

Investigators executed simultaneous SWAT raids in Muskogee, Okla., and northwest Tarrant County just before daylight in September 2007, capturing Huddleston at his Muskogee home and narrowly missing McGowan at his residence in the 6000 block of Azle Nine Mile Road.

Public records suggest the pair once served as cell mates at El Reno Oklahoma Federal Correctional Facility, and both have a criminal history which includes robbery.

Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler noted Huddleston and McGowan were originally identified after an exhaustive investigation by the Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Rangers, the FBI Safe Streets Task Force and the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation.