TV show crucial in Thanksgiving Day killings case

[February 04, 2010]  JUPITER, Fla. (AP) -- It takes just a glimpse sometimes to catch a fugitive.

As "America's Most Wanted" previewed an episode about a Florida man accused of killing four relatives at a Thanksgiving dinner, a couple that owns a remote motel in the Florida Keys became alarmed. They recognized the suspect as one of their guests.

When the show aired just a short time later about a week ago, armed authorities already were quietly surrounding the motel. They busted through a sliding glass door and arrested Paul Merhige, a fugitive police had been after for more than a month.

He is accused of killing his twin sisters, a 79-year-old aunt and a 6-year-old cousin after a typically festive Thanksgiving Day meal.

The motel's owners, Melinda and Paul Pfaff, were watching a football game when the "America's Most Wanted" promo popped up. To be sure, Melinda checked the show's Web site and realized Merhige had been staying in one of their rooms for nearly a month. The couple called the show's hot line, and within a few hours the popular Fox series had recorded its 1,099th capture since it hit the air in 1988.

With about 6 million viewers every Saturday night, authorities said the show has been a crucial tool in catching violent fugitives for 22 years. It is directly linked to the capture of 17 people who were on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. The latest was Merhige.

The show's first episode brought a tip that four days later led to the arrest of a convicted murderer, also the first fugitive profiled on the series.

"In today's world, a fugitive can be across the country in three or four hours," said William Sorukas, chief of the U.S. Marshals Service domestic investigations division in Washington, D.C.

"'America's Most Wanted' is probably the most significant tool to law enforcement that's been developed in the last 20 years," he added, noting he has deputies in the show's hot line room every week.

One of the most notable cases solved with the help of the show was the 2003 arrest of Brian David Mitchell, charged in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart from her Utah home in 2002. She was returned to her family nine months later after an intense search.

Host John Walsh, whose 6-year son was abducted from a South Florida mall and killed in 1981, said the show has led to the capture of fugitives in 35 countries and has brought home more than 50 missing children alive.

Walsh said the key to the show's success is putting a story to the crime and a face to the fugitive while entertaining and providing an emotional connection to the victims.

"There's so much violence in America that Americans have become immune ... They've been conditioned to the homicides ... and the child molesters, and I think that's the power of the show," Walsh said. "We put a face to the victim. We put a face to the criminal. And we say, 'This could happen to you. This could happen to anybody in America,' and I think that's what makes the difference."

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On the Net:

America's Most Wanted: http://www.amw.com/

[Associated Press; By BRIAN SKOLOFF]

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