Savage 1975 Beating Still Haunts Former Cop

 View Larger

Connie Weeks, a mother of a young boy, was beaten and killed by convicted murderer Glen Chambers.

John Byrne Jr. will never forget an awful day in January 1975.

It all began a few months earlier, when John was a new cop with the Sarasota Police Department.  He enjoyed patrolling the streets, but when he wasn't working, he was pursuing his passion: bowling.

He and his team were regulars at the Sarasota Lanes, where John met Connie Weeks -- a petite, young, single mom who worked at the bowling alley. The two became good friends.

Over the next couple of months, they saw each other often -- John was bowling, and Connie was serving beer and munchies to bowlers. John didn't know much about her personal life except that she had a 5-year-old son to support.

But on Jan. 14, 1975, John pulled into the bowling alley to deliver paperwork for his team's state championship games.

John saw Connie and another woman getting out of a car in the parking lot when out of nowhere, he spotted a tall man coming at her.

"He hit Connie in the face just like you'd hit a guy," John said. "She fell to the ground."

The man, who John didn't recognize, ripped Connie's blouse, grabbed her hair and dragged her on the ground by her hair.

John, who was off-duty, jumped from his car and tried to come to Connie's rescue.

The two men fought until someone called 9-1-1 and police arrived.

The man was arrested and identified as Glen Chambers, a married man who was trying to have a relationship with Connie.

She told cops she had broken off the relationship, and he didn't take it very well.

Connie told officers that night, "He's going to kill me. He really is."

Three hours after Chambers was arrested and booked, Connie made one fatal mistake -- she bailed Chambers out of jail.

Brutal Beating Leaves Young Mother Dead

 View Larger

Age enhanced photo by the FBI of what Glen Chambers may look like today. Completed in 2008.

Police aren't sure about what happened after Chambers was freed from jail, but what they do know is that Chambers so viciously beat Connie that she was unrecognizable within just 90 minutes of his release.

Police believe Chambers took his anger out on Connie in her apartment. Walls were damaged, the TV was smashed in and there was debris everywhere.

Knowing Connie was in bad shape, Chambers carried her limp body into the ER that night. Suspicious nurses called the police after Chambers said she had slipped in the tub.

Chambers was arrested again that same day.

Connie struggled for her life, but she had suffered  severe brain damage. John Byrne Jr. visited her often during her days in the hospital, as did her mother and siblings.

"They were difficult days," said sister Pam Cooper.

Days later, Connie died as a result of Chambers' beating.

"I will never forgive that maniac," said John, who felt sorry for young Connie, her young son and family.

Shortly after her death, John quit the police department, feeling discouraged about being able to protect and serve.

He now delivers truck parts throughout Florida.

Escape After Escape Leads To Prisoner's Freedom

Chambers was convicted of the killing and was sentenced to die. But while awaiting transfer to death row, he concocted an escape plan with two other inmates.

Chambers perched himself on the ledge above the door to his cell while the two other inmates encouraged the corrections guard to enter.

Once in, Chambers jumped on the guard and attacked him. The three inmates grabbed their bedsheets and fled the cell.

From there, the inmates got to a window, shimmied down the bedsheets, jumped a huge fence and ran for freedom.

They didn't stay on the run for long.  All three were rounded up just days later and received additional time on their sentences for the escape.

Chambers was finally transferred to death row to await his date with Old Sparky, Florida's notorious electric chair.

But as luck would have it, the state of Florida vacated his death sentence, transferring Chambers to a life sentence to be carried out at the Polk Correctional Facility.

His records show he was a good inmate, which earned him time on a work release program in Florida called PRIDE.  His job was to make furniture and help load it onto trucks.

On Feb. 21, 1990, Chambers took advantage of his status and loaded a cabinet -- and himself -- on a truck bound for Daytona, according to the Department of Corrections report.

Once on the truck, he managed to open up a back panel on the truck and escape somewhere between the Tampa area and Daytona.

The truck driver later discovered his back panel broken, a broken cabinet, an inmate's uniform, a hand crank and some small tools.

Chambers was a free man again, and he hasn't been seen since.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and Florida Department of Corrections have tracked down hundreds of leads since 1990, to no avail.

In 2008, FDLE had received a promising lead from Georgia reporting Chambers was spotted in a homeless camp.

The Geogia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) had a forensic artist create an age-enhanced sketch of what Chambers might look like today.

With the new sketch, GBI agents hit the woods, looking for Chambers. Instead they found a man who was a lookalike of the escapee, but no sign of Chambers.

FDLE agent Brannon Sheely continues to work this case, along with a task force seeking other escapees.

"There's no reason this man should be free," he said. "We are going to find him."

He remains on the run.  For Connie Weeks' family, especially her 81-year-old mother and the adult son who grew up without a mother, they would like closure.

"Her health is failing her, and she would like to end her life knowing that the man who killed her daughter is in custody," said Connie's sister Pam Cooper.