BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas – When news broke that 54-year-old Edward Campbell was accused of arson, murder and a shootout with police, an investigator in Brazoria County knew that name well.
"What he did to his wife, anything would have been possible for him," said Francine Vargas with the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office.
She said Campbell was accused of assaulting his wife in Sept. 2014.
"She got home a little bit late from work and he accused her of having an affair," Vargas said. "He pistol-whipped her for hours. At one point, tied a noose around her neck, made her kiss her children goodbye. That's the last time she was going to see them. Eventually he fell asleep. She escaped the home and called 911."
Vargas said it took seven attempts to find Campbell and serve a warrant. Campbell was to appear in court on Dec. 18, but he didn't show. He was a fugitive from justice in Texas when he and his son, Eric Campbell were accused of killing 73-year-old Jerome Faulkner and 62-year-old Dora Faulkner -- torching their house and stealing their truck.
"I was so distraught that the man that I loved turned into this crazy weird person," said Chrystal Daugherty to WRAL-TV, in North Carolina, by phone, from her home in California. She said she was Edward's wife for one year and that Campbell was once a registered nurse who was able to get morphine and Valium for his own use.
"I said: 'This is not going to happen. You need to pack up your stuff and leave or get help or I'm calling the police,'" Daugherty said.
Daugherty said he left and she said she didn't hear anything about him for 30 years.
"He slipped through the cracks a lot," she said. "That guy should have been in jail a long time ago."