Reporter Sharon Montague can be reached at 822-1411 or by e-mail at smontague@salina.com.
Salina Journal
The woman arrested Monday in Indiana in connection with at least 10 bank robberies in four states was born in Phillipsburg and graduated from high school in Jewell, authorities said.
Savannah Myers, 20, and her boyfriend, Ronald Palmer, 34, have been compared to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, the notorious bank-robbing couple of the 1930s.
Matthew Fillenwarth, investigations commander for the Greenwood (Ind.) Police Department, said the couple have been connected to motel and bank robberies in Missouri and bank robberies in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. In most of the cases, he said, Myers went into the bank wielding a gun and Palmer drove the getaway car.
"Very seldom did he go into the banks," Fillenwarth said. "She liked it. She'd go into the banks, brandishing the weapon. She's the first female bank robber I've heard of around here. We've had our fair share of bank robberies, but usually it's a male-dominated crime."
'She was a good kid'
Ron Kelley, superintendent of the Jewell School District, was shocked to learn of Myers' arrest.
"She was a good kid," he said. "She did well in school. She wouldn't have stood out in a crowd, at all."
He said Myers graduated in May 2006 from Jewell Senior High School and planned to attend Kansas State University.
Kelley said that, during her high school years, Myers was "very successful academically and well-accepted socially. She was just a regular kid."
Bodybuilding circles
Fillenwarth said Myers apparently met Palmer within the past year, through body-building circles. Palmer, who was called "LionHeart," ran a charitable organization at one time, Fillenwarth said, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former bodybuilder, once referred to him as, "The Michael Jordan of powerlifting."
Fillenwarth said Palmer had been a college soccer star in California.
"It sounds like he had a lot going for him."
Fillenwarth said the two were being compared to Bonnie and Clyde because of their boldness.
"She wasn't changing disguises at all from bank to bank," Fillenwarth said. "One time, they were robbing a bank, and she told them not to put dye packs in with the money. They gave her one. She was so mad, she went back the following day to rob the same bank. They didn't do it because security was there the next day. They went a block away and robbed another bank."
Made bond, kept going
Fillenwarth said Myers was out on bond after an arrest for a bank robbery in Indianapolis when the two robbed a bank on Nov. 26.
"She posted her $80,000 bond and got out, then they just kept going," Fillenwarth said.
The two aren't suspected of robbing any banks in Greenwood, which is an Indianapolis suburb. But Greenwood police got involved in the chase Monday, when authorities in Louisville, Ky., called with a tip that the two suspected bank robbers had moved to Greenwood.
Police were watching the couple's townhouse when they got into a car and drove away. Officers attempted to stop the car, Fillenwarth said, but it sped away, leading officers on a chase for five or six miles before the car hit a curb and two tires were flattened.
Fillenwarth said Palmer jumped out of the driver's seat and ran.
"He jumped over the Interstate fence with two detectives chasing him," Fillenwarth said. "They chased him across eight lanes of I-465, which is a major loop around Indianapolis, during rush hour. I can't believe they weren't run over.
"It was like a big, human game of Frogger, with people dodging 18-wheelers."
Officers eventually caught Palmer on the other side of the Interstate.
Myers was captured as she tried to flee through the driver's side door.
"She stood up, and she was hit by two or three guys, running up on her," Fillenwarth said.
Dye-stained money
Fillenwarth said officers found a "sizeable amount" of dye-stained money in the couple's townhouse. They also found a gun, wrapped in plastic, stuffed under a Coke machine at a Greenwood motel. Fillenwarth said the gun had been thrown in a bag with money from a bank robbery, and a dye pack exploded in the bag, staining the gun.
"It was just painted with teargas and dye," Fillenwarth said. "It was fully functional."
Since the two were arrested, Fillenwarth said he's received dozens of calls from law enforcement officers throughout the Midwest, asking whether the pair might have robbed banks in their jurisdictions.
"I got eight new voicemails today regarding this," he said.
He said none of the calls were from law enforcement agencies in Kansas.
Fillenwarth said Myers and Palmer were moved Thursday from the Johnson County Jail, where they had been since Monday, to Louisville, Ky., to face bank robbery charges.
nReporter Sharon Montague can be reached at 822-1411 or by e-mail at smontague@salina.com.
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