Family Held Hostage Released By Fugitives Wrong Turn In Stolen Car Leads To Day Of Terror

A wrong turn by fugitives trying to flee the law in a stolen car led to a day of terror Tuesday for a Fromberg family that was taken hostage.

All four members of the Albert Graham family were released without harm, however, and police negotiators finally persuaded the hostage-takers to surrender peacefully Tuesday afternoon.

There were no injuries, but authorities said two or three shots were fired at lawmen as the four left their vehicle and ran to the Grahams’ trailer house.

Lt. Tim Neiter, Yellowstone County jailer, identified three of the fugitives as Donald Mathew Greenlee, 18, Jason Scott Tomlinson, 20, and Amanda Jo Myers, 18, all from Ohio but no hometowns available. He said all were charged with aggravated kidnapping, and Tomlinson also was charged with parole violation on an Ohio burglary charge.

The other person was identified as Jessi McClanahan, 17, of Utica, Ohio. A juvenile, she was taken to the Yellowstone County Youth Services Center.

The incident began between 5:30 and 6 a.m. Tuesday when a routine license-plate check at a Big Timber motel turned up a car that had been reported stolen in Ohio.

Sweetgrass County Sheriff George Ames said the people driving the car escaped through a motel room window while his deputy waited for backup. They fled in the stolen car, with officers in pursuit.

The high-speed chase took them through Sweetgrass, Yellowstone and Carbon counties, some 100 miles.

But the fugitives then blundered, turning onto a dirt road near Fromberg, thinking it was a back way into the hills. Instead, it dead-ended at a mobile home.

Authorities said the four barged into the mobile home and took the family there hostage - Albert, 40, and Chris Graham, 38, and their two daughters, Lisa, 19, and Kristine, 15.

Officers from the Carbon County and Yellowstone County sheriff’s departments, the Montana Highway Patrol and the Billings Police Department surrounded the home, and a negotiator from the Carbon County sheriff’s office, Deputy Kelly Peters, talked to the fugitives.

By late morning, the hostages began emerging. The two daughters were first out, followed later by their mother. The father was released a short time before the four fugitives surrendered.

Lisa Graham later said her abductors told her and her sister “we could do what we wanted, so we left.” She said the situation was traumatic but the family didn’t feel threatened.

“They never held a gun to any of us. They were just as scared as us. They didn’t know what to do themselves,” the teenager said.

“They were nice people. Sounds funny, but they were nice,” she said.

Chris Graham said the girls went out as the fugitives were on the telephone with negotiators, and the four didn’t realize they had left for 15 to 20 minutes.

The fugitives seemed relieved the girls had escaped, she said.

Carbon County Sheriff Al McGill said officers gave up nothing to win the releases and resolve the stand-off.

“We just talked to them,” the sheriff said after the mother was released. “We told them if you really don’t want anyone hurt, you’ll release her, and they did.”

Adam Wilm, 18, Lisa Graham’s fiance, said he spoke with Lisa later and she described the family’s abductors as also frightened. The men had guns but didn’t point them at anyone, he said.

Capt. Ray Back of the Licking County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Department said Harold McClanahan had reported his 1989 Pontiac Sunbird stolen on July 24 and said his daughter Jessi was a runaway.

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