Published: January 30, 2007 10:12 pm      

Woman captured after citizen recognized her on MySpace

For more than a year, a Richmond woman eluded police.

Former BP Gas Station Manager Dawn Marie Cruse, 32, was last seen Nov. 10, 2005. It was the night police believe she allegedly stole nearly $3,500 from her employer and disappeared.

That was until someone recognized Cruse’s photo on the Richmond Police Department’s MySpace Web site.

“Somebody anonymously relayed information that she recognized a female wanted on MySpace,” said RPD Detective Brian Lafferty.

RPD Patrolman B.J. O’Donnell was dispatched Thursday to a business on Lexington Road, where Cruse allegedly was inside, Lafferty said.

“He got her as she was leaving the business,” Lafferty said.

Cruse was arrested without incident and charged with theft by failure to make required disposition of property. The charges stem from a Nov. 10, 2005, incident where Cruse was responsible for seeing that several deposits from the Four Mile Road gas station got to the bank. While Cruse did deposit some of the money, Lafferty said a deposit in the amount of $3,469 went missing. Cruse never returned to work after that, he said.

“There was already an internal investigation going on into some missing items,” Lafferty said. “At the time she was just merely asked them. After she went to the bank and finished up that day, that was it.”

Although originally from Richmond, Lafferty said the department received information Cruse had moved to London, Ky. However, after unsuccessfully attempting to locate her there, RPD Maj. Steve Gregg turned to the public.

“We have to ask the public for help, so that’s what we did,” Gregg said. “And that’s what we’ll continue to do. We’re going to start putting some of our most wanted on there next. It worked out well.”

Gregg said he has noticed an influx of hits on the Web site and has received a lot of support from citizens.

“I realized that it works,” he said. “It’s a part of the community policing. A lot of people are looking at it, seeing the crimes of the day and we’re getting a lot of tips off of it. It’s just another tool in police work to help us solve crimes.”

Cruse is free on 10-percent of a $3,000 cash bond.

Kelly Foreman can be reached at kforeman@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.