By NC WANTED Staff

Posted: Mar 30, 2007
Updated: Apr 1, 2009

CUMBERLAND COUNTY — NC WANTED has learned that Gary Parham, Jr., one of our worst-of-the-worst Target Twenty Fugitives, was arrested early this morning in Miami. 

He was wanted for first-degree murder, two counts of armed robbery and two counts of sexual assault through Prince George’s County , Maryland, near Washington, D.C. Parham, 29, has ties to the Fayetteville area and authorities believed he may have been hiding out in North Carolina.

On Monday, January 26, NC WANTED received a tip from an informant, who said Parham was in Miami using an alias, and that she had turned him into authorities. She said he was arrested at her house between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. Tuesday by Miami-Dade police after she learned of his pattern of rape and murder on NC WANTED's web site.

NC WANTED shared this information with U.S. Marshals, who then verified that, in fact, one of their most sought-after fugitives, Gary Parham, Jr., was sitting in a Miami jail. Detective Juan Villalba of the Miami-Dade police department confirmed that Parham was in custody, but would not release any details of his arrest.

In previous close calls with police, Parham had been released from jail before authorities realized his history of rape and murder. This time, Parham's luck ran out.

The informant, who asked that her identity be kept confidential, told NC WANTED that Parham, who she knew as Jaylin Hart, lied about his criminal past, admitting that he had committed robberies but denying ever hurting any women.

"I feel betrayed by him, you know? I feel hurt, I feel empty," she said.

On March 25, 2005, police responded to the 2000 block of Treetop Lane in Montgomery County, Maryland after reports of a robbery. The initial investigation revealed that two women were inside the home and allowed Parham and an unidentified man inside. Once inside, Parham threatened the victims with a handgun and forced them into another room, where he sexually assaulted them. Parham and the other man fled the scene. Investigation by detectives has determined that the second man was not involved in the robbery or sexual assaults.

Theodora Cooper, 26, was found by her fiance in the hallway of her apartment building in August 1998. She had been stabbed more than 30 times. In 2005, authorities resubmitted DNA evidence and found a definitive match: Gary Parham, Jr. He had been released from prison just a few days earlier and has been on the run ever since.

Parham told the informant that he had walked in on a woman being stabbed and the attacker then turned the knife on him, explaining why his blood was found all over the crime scene.

But his lies eventually caught up with him when she found out about the murder and sexual assaults.

On January 27, the informant went to work and while she was there, she conducted a few Google searches, looking for Jaylin Hart. Knowing that the man she knew had ties to North Carolina, she looked at ncwanted.com.

"I seen his face, but of course his name and his face didn’t match. You know, he told me his name’s Jaylin Hart and on the thing it said it’s Gary, and I looked at all his information, you know, and it’s him to a T," she said. "Only thing he got new tattoos, but the green eyes, I knew it was him. And he said he didn’t do it, but I looked it up and the other charges about the two women and the armed robbery, the sexual assault, you know, and I was scared."

"I didn’t want to come home while he was still in the house, so I took the printout of his information and I went to a location close to my house and called 911 and they had an officer meet me there," she explained. "They had me call him and tell him to meet me at the door because I had groceries. So I did that and they apprehended him."

Parham has been featured on America's Most Wanted and had been believed to be hiding out with family in the Cumberland County area. Keep checking www.ncwanted.com during the day to watch for a comprehensive story about this remarkable turn-of-events. The story of Parham's crimes and his ability to elude law enforcement is one for the record books.