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No shortage of tips for police still looking for bank robbers

BY TARA FASOL, The Southern

Friday, October 10, 2008 3:40 PM CDT

CARBONDALE — Two men caught on video surveillance robbing a First Southern Bank branch in Carbondale at gunpoint Thursday morning are still at large and police are asking the public to continue calling with any information that could help in the investigation.

Officer Randy Mathis with the Carbondale Police Department said detectives have received a number of calls from the public offering tips about the suspects and the robbery.

Police know that both men arrived at the bank on one black and forest green mixed sports-style motorcycle, both also wearing backpacks.

One suspect wore a hunter green hooded sweatshirt, dark pants, red shoes and black gloves; the other was wearing a beige Carhart-style jacket, black pants with cargo pockets and blue gloves.

The duo kept their helmets on during the robbery and also kept face shields flipped down to better conceal their identity.

The bank’s alarm sounded about 9:50 a.m., just minutes after the two medium build white males entered the lobby, one wielding a black semi-automatic handgun as the other emptied money from cash drawers.

No customers were in the bank at the time of the robbery and police said several employees at the bank were not injured.

The suspects were last seen traveling west on Chautauqua Road near the Tower Road intersection. Mathis said the two men with backpacks on one motorcycle made for a unique mode of transportation and he was hopeful that caught people’s eye and that those people will come forward with any information.

Only moments before the bank robbery began, police responded to a call of a stabbing in the 2300 block of South Illinois Avenue., about four miles from the bank, located at 2500 W. Murphysboro Rd.

Upon arrival at the scene, police were not able to locate the victim but later found through investigation that a white female was seen running on the east side of the roadway with a black male chasing behind her. Witnesses said the woman appeared to have blood on her chin, neck, upper right torso and right leg.

The call came from a female who claimed she had been stabbed three times but after the call came in about the robbery police began to wonder if the lack of any evidence or victim could mean the call was a fake intended to draw police from the bank robbery scene.

Chief Bob Ledbetter said in a previous interview that police were not yet linking the stabbing to the robbery but was also not ruling out a connection.

Mathis said Friday that police were not able to comment on whether a number had been traced from that 911 call. He was also unable to comment as to whether police had checked local hospitals for stabbing victims and if any information was turned up during that or any other attempts to locate the female caller.

Anyone with more information in either the robbery or the stabbing is asked to call crime stoppers tip line at 549-2677.