Last of 7 Castaic Escapees Caught on Bike in Reseda

The last of seven inmates who escaped from the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic last month was arrested early Tuesday in Reseda as he rode a stolen bicycle equipped with a radio scanner tuned to a police frequency, authorities said.

Terrence Lee Liddell, 41, of Reseda, is a suspect in a rape, two attempted rapes and several nighttime residential burglaries in Encino and Tarzana since he fled from the county facility’s maximum security section on March 6, Los Angeles police said.

Liddell was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies without resistance about 5:15 a.m. near a convenience store in the 6000 block of Tampa Avenue. Officers then took him to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where investigators gathered pubic hairs, blood samples and other physical evidence.

Seek Link to Crimes

Police said they believe that the evidence will link Liddell to the March 25 rape of a Tarzana woman and to attempted rapes on March 16 and March 31 in the Encino-Tarzana area. The methods used in all three recent attacks resembled those used by Liddell in other rapes, police said. One of the victims said her attacker was similar in build, age and other physical characteristics to Liddell, Police Lt. William Gaida said.

After the escape, sheriff’s deputies began conducting surveillance operations in the western San Fernando Valley, where Liddell lived and where he had been arrested several times. Liddell has a lengthy record of burglary and rape convictions and has escaped from prison previously.

Los Angeles police joined the surveillance about a week ago, after the sex crimes and burglaries were reported, authorities said.

“We thought, based upon his prior pattern, he might come back,” Gaida said. “He seems to always come back to the West Valley.”

When arrested, Liddell was riding a bicycle to which he had attached a police scanner, Gaida said. By monitoring the broadcast, he could duck out of view when police approached, the lieutenant said.

The escapee was carrying undisclosed property that led police to believe that he had committed a burglary shortly before he was arrested, Gaida said. Liddell was booked at West Valley Jail for investigation of a variety of charges. He was held on a non-bail escape warrant pending arraignment today, police said.

Was Awaiting Trial

Liddell has spent most of his adult life in jail. At the time of his escape, he was awaiting trial on burglary and attempted rape charges following his arrest Nov. 1, after police had chased him while he was on a bicycle.

In last month’s escape, Liddell and six other inmates cut through a pipe in the wall of their second-story dorm, using a saw left by workmen. They forced open a heavy mesh window screen using a piece of the pipe, lowered themselves to the ground with a ladder made of bedding and scaled two 16-foot chain link fences topped with barbed wire, deputies said.

The other six escapees--one a man convicted of two murders and charged with a third--were recaptured within 24 hours.