November 1, 2021 • 27 mins
The Doughertys have been on the run for over a week and have managed to evade capture by laying low and traveling through 16 states undetected by law enforcement but a miscalculation on their part may prove to be their biggest mistake.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I awake to a cool, crisp, dewy morning. It's early,
maybe seven a m. I roll over and noticed Dylan
is awake already and Ryan is in the process of
waking up. I crawl out of the tent and gaze
up at the sky. Colorado is beautiful and wide, and
the mountains make me feel like I've been here before.
(00:21):
Did I live out West in a previous life? I wonder.
I get up and stretch my back. My neck cracks
all the way down my spine. I have only a
thin T shirt and I'm cold. All of a sudden,
we packed the bed rolls and break down the tent.
As I jump in the car, Ryan glances back at me.
I can read his face like a book. Ever since
(00:43):
we were children, I could feel an energy from my
brother when something was wrong, a bad omen a black feeling,
a warning of some type. It was his way of
reading the vibes around us. This is the day, I
can feel it coming, he says, like it's a failure
on his part. Right, this is not the day. Honey
will be fine, I tell him. Always the optimist, even
(01:05):
in the face of defeat, I smile. My heart cannot
be broken because I won't let it. I pull against
all my feelings. I have a bad feeling all of
a sudden, I look over at Dylan. He's much harder
to read. I grabbed Bryan's shoulders and squeeze the familiar
sister hug I know he needs. He starts the car
(01:26):
and drives down the black top. About twenty minutes later,
we stopped for gas. I clean out the car and
Dylan and I take turns pumping gas. Ryan hurries back
and tells me to get in the car. I look
at him and ask why, Because there's a fucking cop
right there. That's not a cop, I say right back,
it's an undercover I'm telling you. Welcome to The Dockerty Gang,
(01:50):
a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Studios, Episode seven.
We should have gone to sports Authority. I'm Courtney Armstrong.
I'me producer at Katie Studios with Stephanie Lydecker. We've been
working with producer Beth Greenwald on The Dougherty Gang for
months now. These three siblings have agreed to tell their
story for the very first time. Each from separate prisons.
(02:14):
Lee Grace Dockerty is at the Federal Correction Institute Aliceville
in Alabama. Ryan Docherty is in the U. S Penitentiary
Tucson in Arizona, and Dylan Docherty is at the Federal
Correction Institute in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Let's call from prison.
We thought we got away, and you know, everything just
(02:34):
seemed totally normal, like you're just in a car trip,
you're on the road, you're with your brothers. It was
like nothing was out of the ordinary. Then the moment
we would see a cop at intersection or on the highway,
we would just saw what we were doing, like, oh
my gosh, there's a cop. What are we gonna do?
Are we gonna get pulled over? It would turn it
would just like not wrenching. It was just very emotional.
(02:56):
We would just get really quiet and just kind of
look at each other like, well, this is is gonna happen.
It was a lot of insiety, and as soon as
the cop would turn off the road, it was like,
we just want lie back to normal. Within hours of
leaving their home in the Coachy, Florida, the Doughertes robbed
a bank and engaged in a shootout with police for
an entire week. The siblings have aided multiple agencies who
(03:17):
were after them. After crossing sixteen states, they were landing
in Colorado to hide out before heading south to Mexico.
Here's Dylan, I've been to Colorado before skiing in Vale.
There's a lot of remote areas and there's a lot
of the campground areas in the state, which is why
we definitially stayed in Colorado for a couple of days.
Ryan and Lee Grace had never been there. We hit
(03:38):
this one stretch of road that I remember, and we
must have drove for like thirty miles at like ten
thousand fucking seen elevation pluts, and it was just like
you were driving along the ridge line of a bunch
of connecting mountains. Gets hard to describe, like if there
was a mountain in there a series of tips that
happened to connect like a razor back, and you were
(03:59):
just driving right on the top of it. And like
there's overlooked spots where you get a pull over and
they got a little shaded benches and says ships, you
just get a sail forever and ever, and it's just
like blue and green and it's just amazing looking. And
it's that that was a cool part for it for
me saying that really beautiful scenery, the nature out in
(04:20):
Colorado and Utah was so it was so beautiful, you know,
once we got out of the Midwest, the United States
out west is so gorgeous. It picks a breath away,
you know, these big mountains, bloomy and being with my brothers,
here's the grace. Speaking with producer Beth Greenwald, was there
any thought of going your separate ways? Well, no, I
(04:42):
don't think at any point we really wanted to separate,
because the year was Once we get separated, how are
we going to meet back up? With no cell phones,
no meet up spots, no points actually get in contact
with each other. We did not want to be anywhere.
While we had a cellphone, nowhere were anything to electronic
was used, no email, you know, no text messages. Former
(05:04):
Colorado State Trooper Mark Panetta was aware of the Dougherty
sightings in his state. There were reports that they were
seeing in Colorado. That was the last we had heard
about it when I went to work that day. There
was the night before they were somebody who had seen
him in Colorado Springs with nowhere to sleep but the car.
The trio were cold and decided to camp out, but
they needed supplies. Here's Dylan. I'm an ari e I
(05:27):
right now I'm walking around. You know, I got the
ten and dude's like telling me all the cool features
about I'm like, yeah, man, that's all the kids of
Mestitos out. Great. Yeah, it's dollars swede man, and I
could got something like a little foam rollout pad and
just sat up there and I got always like a
little odds and then you know, the stuff we needed.
And I go over to the counter to check out,
(05:49):
and there was a couple of gentlemen in there that
I believe we're about to ship out. And I remember
there Bill, he like eighteen or nineteen, and they bought
three watches. And I've mentioned johna hey fellas, I appreciate
your service. Thank you for that. Then of course that
was my turn to pay for my stuff, and which
I did in cash as as Alwayte's like, well do
you want to warranty on it? We need see your
(06:09):
email at dress and and two forms of I D
and we'd like to get your thumb print. And I'm like,
this is all about a fucking tent. It was really weird,
like and I didn't realize there was all those questions
that came with was buying a tent. I just wanted
to buy the tent without happening to offer her my
you know, firstborn child as collateral. So Eli and are
I I should have went to sports authority. What the
(06:30):
funk was I thinking? Well, Dylan questions his shopping trip.
Ryan noticed they were getting some unwanted attention. After I
came out of store, Ryan and Lee Gray said that
some guy has kind of look kind of money. We're
getting the parking lot. I see this guy who's like,
give me the fucking Harry I Baul mcparkama are E
I and he like picks up his cell phone and
starts styling and then started talking. And I tell my
(06:51):
brother when we go out, like, hey, that dude just
made us. He just called the cops on us, like
we gotta go. He's like, all you're tripping, You're being paranoid.
I'm like, I'm not being paranoid. Former Wolsenburgh police Chief
Jim Chamberlain was one of the first to confront the Dochertyes.
The night before, my wife and I were watching the news.
We saw a news report that they possibly were spotted
(07:11):
at an Arii store in Colorado Springs, so we thought
they might be in the area here Stellen. They had
all these calls coming in all there, and they're here there.
You know, some poor lady in Tennessee that they thought
was Lee Grace. They tackled her in her mailbox and
just you know, they were ripping everything. Every poor person
driving a you know, innocent person driving a white super
(07:32):
was getting pulled over at gunpoint everywhere. And I think
the first time they had any kind of real like
here's where they are, you know, was when we were
supposedly spotted at the Rii store and Grace and Ryan
they called it a stink high. Local police were overwhelmed
with Dougherty sightings, investigating a sighting at Walmart. It sounded
(07:54):
like somebody was gonna buy ammunition and then they left.
You know, we're coming across a once you can fight
up here. Um from standing to go over to the
TV junction around my uncle's fourteen backed into the parking
lots there. There's a little white car that's trying to
sort of matching descriptions. Little guys they're looking for little
(08:14):
white card, a little doldkin end up next to it.
There was a female wandering around it. Um, I think
it's a little super It looks like a little super
rim among the front I can't tell for sure, but
possible fighting for some parties, for three parties that were
involved in the shooting. And they said it was a
white car that matched the description. Okay, they have a
(08:36):
dome tent set up. Okay, you can as a female
walking around the around the camp site. Well, multiple authorities
continued tracking the trio. They headed up into the mountains.
Here's Ryan, all right. Well, we drove off the side
of the road in one place, like up like onto
like a ravine and off and like I remember, like
(08:57):
I took fucking like a shower and like this running water.
It's like a moving body of water. It was like
really pretty had rocks and ship in the water. I took,
I fucking showered off because we've got like hygiene shipped
in the car. But I know that my sister and
brothers showered off, and like remember laying my clothes out
on the rocks. We did try sleeping out of doors
a few times. It is so cold in Colorado at night,
(09:20):
you feel like you're going to freeze. To death and
it's very wet. I remember just getting out of the
car and saying, oh no, So you know, we're in
the mountains almost the whole time. I'm used to living
at sea level. So it's hard on my chest, it's
hard on my head. I was getting this worst headaches,
just how mean counting headaches. I felt like I was
gonna have a braining eurysthm. We found a place. It
(09:42):
was like a little overlook off the side of the mountain.
Because color that was a bitch and ass place. Man,
Like if all the hipsters wanted to move there and
drove up all the fucking housing prices and some of
the other ships that they brought with them, that would
just be like a fucking slapping ass place to live.
Because like I've seen like people that were just tubing
and like a fucking open river, like some ship that
was running down off the mountain, and I know that
(10:03):
fucking water was called his ship. But it was a
whole funkload of cars, And it's not like it was
someplace that was like bought on our own. We got
these expensive paths from the ri I Camping supply store,
and we got a little I believe It was a
two or three man tent, very small, very small tent.
Everything was extremely expensive, and that night we slept in
(10:25):
the tent on the floor on the ground, just the
plane ground. There was nothing out there, there was no
camp site. It was just a little off the road
area with dirt. We just pulled off and put the
tent right next to the cart. Here's Trooper Vanetta. The
people that saw them and reported them called line when
one and reported them when they were in the Rye
(10:46):
area or sant Isabel, because they had camped somewhere that
night up in that sant Azabel area. So the reporting
party on that was a former trooper and I want
to say it was his father in law. I saw
them and then called nine one one and kind of
got the ball rolling. Dylan and Ryan pick up the story.
And I think I was pumping gas in lead grades
(11:08):
at the time, been riding in the back seat, and
I seek Ryan said something to me before I maybe
I said something right. I was like, and I think
it's kind just made us because he kind of like
a slow trying to do the parking lot. So my
brother and sister, I'm like, hey, that's a fucking crown
vic with steel rims with a cage, and it's got
the laptop stand and it's got the little piggly wiggly
(11:30):
curly Q antenna on the back for the radios, very
clearly an unmarked card, Like I spotted it, and I
told my brothers, the sisters in my great this fucking consciousness,
and he knows who we are, like, we're fucked. Like
you just slow rolled behind us, grabbed our tag, rolled
out in front of us, tried to park and look
nonchalant in front of the store, but like, I'm not stupid.
This motherfucker just popped us. And they're like, oh, you'rena
(11:52):
being paranoid, You're crazy, And I'm like, alright, butt Dylan
realized that Ryan could be right. He pulled across the
street and across the road and park at another stop sign.
It was kind of like and he was able to
pull back out on the highway whichever way we went,
he was able to pull out behind us. So the officer,
you know, sitting across the road, and I'm like, I
(12:13):
think he made him and he just did his damn
this too. Once he looked over here for about point
five seconds, he looked directly away and made sure not
to look in this direction ever again. So like I'm
gonna observe it, dude, and I'm not stupid, like I
knew what it was. I was like, fuck, they saw us,
you know, for the gas in the car. And then
you know, we pulled out, and when we pulled out,
(12:34):
he pulled out behind us, and not directly behind us,
like when we went across the interstate, we pulled into
the other cast station park line. We've right around and
came back out to the gas station. And when back
across the overpass and we're we're literally meeting each other.
You know, we're not head on collision, but he's you know,
heading east and we're heading west now, and he kind
(12:58):
of did like a little bobble like he was gonna
pull in front of us. And I think there was
a part of him it was like I don't know
if I really want to pull in front of these
people just yet. No, but he flicked his he clicked
his light to kind of be like a bobble like
he was gonna pull in front of us. And he
hit and he went straight path us and at that time,
we can jumped on the interstate and he's down and
(13:19):
then he went across and pulling. You turned really fast.
We were going southbound and we were moving fast at
that point. You know, I can remember there was a
point where the greats like, well, maybe we just turn
ourselves in. Former Wolsonburg Chief of Police Jim Chamberlain was
aware the Docerties were close. He just didn't know how
close because he was off duty and in the middle
of vacation. I didn't have my radio or anything with me.
(13:43):
I was checking my emails and got the flyer um
for the Docrty gang being on the loose, and so
I made copies of that and gave it to all
the officers that we're working that day. Here again, his
State Trooper Mark Bonetta talking to Beth Well. I was
in Plubblo at the time, so about thirty five miles
south the Colorado Springs. We've seen um the news stories
about what happened in Florida, about them shooting at the officer,
(14:06):
disabling his vehicle, and then they just kind of disappeared
off the grid. Hadn't heard anything about where they were
or what they were doing. Did you think at all,
by any chance that they could end up coming through? Sure,
you know, because Publo, you know, and called the Springs
in Denver. They're all along right along and which you know,
major interstay all the way from you know, Uh, I'll
(14:28):
pass out north, you know, so it's a major thoroughfare.
And then we have we also had Highway fifty that
goes Intersex Pueblo east and west. So uh, yeah, there's
always a chance, you know, you think, well, it could happen.
There's a lot of back roads that are you can
get from Colorado Springs around Pueblo. Meanwhile, Chamberlain's secretary said
there was a sighting of the Dougherties at a nearby campground.
(14:50):
Sitting in the office, that's when our secretary Andrea came
over and said, Hey, are you hearing what's going on?
I'm like, no, I don't have my radio. What's going on? Well,
they I think they might have seen car matching the
description of the fugitives at a campground in Colorado City.
They're going to check it out. I was like, oh, okay,
(15:10):
So I had a radio on my desk. I turned
a radio on, I'm listening, and I'm like, well, you know,
probably you know, another one of a hundred tips called
into the state patrol. They're going to check it out,
because you know, whenever you gotta cut tip called in
like that, you have to go check it out just
to make sure. So I wasn't thinking too much of
it until I started hearing, oh crap, they took off.
(15:34):
Now there's a pursuit. Let's stop here for another quick break.
We'll be back in a moment. Beth gets Ryan's initial
reaction to being chased. So that first moment when they
(15:56):
turned on their lights and you hear sirens, what are
you thinking? All the lights? And I was, like, I
really thought. I was like, man, we'll just we'll dust
them again. Look away from him again here, But like, man,
they have plenty of time to set their ship up,
and like Colorado was on point and they got us.
You know what I thought was, We're gonna have to
fucking slow down and chop the block out of this
(16:16):
car because I don't think I'm gonna be able to
outrun them. I mean I tried to at first, because
I don't want to have to shoot it too, because
no matter how good aim I have, an a K
is good for about six that's it. Right after that,
the bullet just kind of goes walking and you're not
really aiming, You're just praying and praying, and like, I
don't want to hit innocent civilians. If I shoot a cop,
(16:37):
you know, I feel bad, but only so bad. We
weren't doing light speed, but we were, we were moving
and during that that whole situation, you know, I remember,
I remember, I just thought this was the end, this
was it. And there were so many cars. There were
so many cop cars behind us. I want to say
it was like saven or a possibly many it's nine,
(16:58):
and like every extry we went by was like two
or three more you know, cop cars on the and
it was you know, it's kind of a theme from
smoking to man and I'm like, man, this is just
not it's not gonna end. Well, this is this is him, folks.
You know, here's where it's all going to end. And
you know, I mean, honestly, at that time, I was like,
I didn't feel like we're gonna paying this flight. Cot
(17:20):
out the window, here's super Vanetta. It's hard to have
like a single channel with when you have two comp center.
Information was slow to get out, and then we were
told that the s O was following them. The Sheriff's
department was following themselves on the interstate. It's like, oh crap.
So we turned around and went back and got an
interstate and started heading south. I didn't realize that we
(17:41):
didn't know that there was an unmarked car that was
following him. I think he had his his lights wrong.
He was actually trying to trying to contact them, and
unbeknownst to us, we didn't know. And all of sudden,
you know, he pulled over and passed him, and all
of a sudden, I'm like, oh ship, I'm behind him
right now. That's like and we were trying to catch
(18:02):
up to him. So we had our lights and s
irons on stuff, and and that was it. You know,
It's like, oh, ship, the chases are and that's them,
and here we go. Here's Beth speaking to Dylan and Vanetta.
Did you think there was a chance you were going
to get away? I don't think you ever think you're
caught until I put those an cuffs on you, you
know what I mean? And I don't know people and
(18:22):
people say different things and and maybe it's just me,
but you know, I didn't. I really didn't want to.
I didn't want to be caught. I don't look crazy
bit once to be caught. How long are you guys
being chased by whoever's chasing you? At that point between
like nine to twelve minute somewhere around there. It's actually
(18:43):
a fairly long interstate chase, arranging between about eighty two
so over about thirty something miles. And at that point
was it just a high speed pursuit or they already
started um shooting. It was probably just after we crossed
over into the Horfordal County line and a little past that.
And then I and I heard it right like, I
(19:05):
heard the the popping north and first thought to myself,
I was like, ah, are you kidding me? I'm getting
a flat tire, because that's what I sounded like. And
then I realized, oh, hell, they're shooting, you know. So
I reported was like shots fired, you know, and I
backed off right. I I squewed, I kind of you know,
got down to my seat a little bit squitched down
(19:27):
because I knew they had shot up that off through before.
From the other story. Chief Chamberlain picks up the story
and then I started hearing you know, stay patrol over
the radio saying yes, we're being shot at, and I
was like, oh, yep, so that is probably them. So
that's when I made the decision. Even though I don't
have my stuff with me, I had my gun lit
(19:47):
a police officer, I'm gonna go help. So I was like,
I asked Andrea ur secretary, Hey, is there anything wrong
with car aid out there? She said nope. He's like, okay,
well I'm taking it. So I went up and jump
in the car, started up, lights and sirens going, had
the radio on, listening, thinking to myself, Okay, I can
stop by my house, I can grab my vest and
(20:11):
then I can continue because my house was on the
way to the highway. And as I'm going, lights and
sirens faster, I keep listening to you know, they're saying
mile markers, and I'm like okay, doing some calculations in
my head, thinking okay, if I stop, then they won't
be there in time because they had a stop sticks
(20:33):
set up at exit fifty two underneath the overpass. Beth
picks up the story with Ryan. You said, uh, this
is you're being chased, and who's firing back at the police.
You know what, that's a question that you should probably
have either my sister brother, you know what, I'm saying
because I can't specifically say to that because I don't
(20:56):
know what. They're still trying to fight in court and whatnot.
Here's former police chief Chamberlain. So I was thinking, you know,
if any one of them starts pointing again at me,
I'm shooting first, because you know, no vest, no nothing,
They've already shot at officers on the highway. Yeah, if
it's gonna be them or me, it's going to be them.
I felt like we could have gotten a life at times,
(21:17):
its charm or whatever, but law enforcement had a plan.
Supermanettic explains, they're shooting at us, you know, So we
we backed off and not a lot, but enough to
keep him in sight but give him a little bit
of a distance between me and them. And we were
in communication with Trooper Nova, who was right at the
exit in Walsenburg, who was working a construction over time detail,
(21:41):
and the plan was that he was going to deploy
the stop sticks there and try to try to disable
the tire in the vehicle by flattening the tires and
hopefully put this thing to rest. We're going to take
a quick break here. We'll be back in a moment.
M The police were mobilized and the spike strips were
(22:10):
in place. Here's Chief Chamberlain followed by Choper Banetta. So
I was like, okay, I'll head southbound on the fifty
two on ramp because I could see him coming. I'll
just fall in at the end of the pursuit, and
then I'll help out with whatever happens after they get cut.
After they go over the stop sticks, you couldn't go
left right because there's guardrails and whatnot, so you know,
(22:32):
they wouldn't really have much of an escape route. So
hopefully that I would force him to stay on the
road and then the stop sticks would be enough to
get at least one or not all the tires flat.
When we were in the car and south, you know,
with the paid to nine police cards chasing us and
cops on every you know, off ram and go on
(22:52):
very overpath, we just kind of there was a multiple
construction zones between the county line and to where it
actually ended, so we're lanes were shifted and there was
cones and jersey barriers and whatnot. So it was kind
of the kind of sketchy going through their blasting with
with other traffic on whatnot. But Luckily it was it
(23:12):
was light enough traffic that it wasn't wasn't too horrible.
You know, I told everybody the car, said, I you know,
I love everybody in the car, you know, and however this,
how this turns out, nothing will have to change. It
was really calm at that point, you know. I mean
the winners were down in the car and you know,
the wind swifting, and but I kind of had I
(23:34):
had like a real kind of a sense of calm
as far as you know, just where we were and
what was was you don't have all those variables and choices,
and I guess it's uh here to deal with. And
you know, our offices were either you know, we'll get
away or or we won't. Ryan continues, I was doing
(23:54):
about like one authority when I swerved to avoid the
bike strips that they deployed, and I mean actually hit
the spike strips. What happened was is I went off
the shoulder slightly with the two driver's side tires front rear,
and I was shadowing the brakes, which you know, I'm
putting like five percent pressure on the brakes. And when
it went from uneven terrain from like gravelly bullshit graphs,
(24:19):
and then I rode back up onto the shoulder, and
when it caught coming back up on the lip, like
the antalock brakes got piste off, have an uneven you know,
the brakes on the right side have regular interstate tractions.
The brakes on the left side are getting fucking weird
feedback from the gravel. And I don't know if like
the abs got confused or what it was, but like
it locked the brakes hard. Here again is Chief Chamberlain.
(24:42):
They swerved to try to avoid the stop sticks and
started sliding, rolled over a couple of times, and their
car rolled up on the guard rail right in front
of where I was. And as we started to spin,
we're drifting sideways. I tried to jam the car up
in the river earth and cut the wheel hard to
the left, which because we were spinning, we're starting to
(25:05):
drift towards the driver's side. So I cut the wheel
hard to the left in order to get the tires
to turn that way, because as you're going backwards, the
steering is reverse. And then I was hoping that I'd
be able to stomp on it and reverse with the
wheel cut, sling its background forward, drop it and drive
and keep going, but it wasn't able to because it
drifted so hard sideways that we slipped off from the
(25:29):
driver's side of the interstate to the passenger side of
the interstate. And when we hit the grass there, we
just spun out and started rolling the car, you know,
flip and grabbed a little traction, flipped and started rolling.
We might have rolled over times. I don't know. You know,
(25:49):
I went on the window of that car, you know,
when the car rolls, we're doing an excess of obviously
about to wear my feet out, and had I've been
wearing this a seat route I think was the way
to the roof tore open on the cars. He made
a picture, but the roof is torn opening like like
a great big, you know, piece of like a sharp
(26:09):
tunicy and like rolled down the inside the car. And
when it was said and done, thought it might have
been the last time that I've seen my brother. And
so I shouted out some I was like, man, I
love you guys, I yelled at her. Police dropped the gun.
Police dropped the gun. Police dropped the gun. And the
third time I said, dad, she looked up at me
and stopped and spread her legs a little bit starting
(26:34):
reason the gun that you had towards me. More on
that next time. If you're over eighteen years old and
want to see pictures of Lee Grace and Ryan Dougherty
or find their addresses to write them in prison, go
to our Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. The Dougherty Gang
is executive produced by Stephanie Lye Decker and me Courtney Armstrong,
(26:56):
along with Beth Greenwald, Sean McEwen, and Joseph Morgan. Editing
and sound design is by Jeff Tis. Additional producing by
Chris Graves and Jeff Shane. The Doctor Gang is a
production of I Heart Radio and Katie Studios. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
I awake to a cool, crisp, dewy morning. It's early,
maybe seven a m. I roll over and noticed Dylan
is awake already and Ryan is in the process of
waking up. I crawl out of the tent and gaze
up at the sky. Colorado is beautiful and wide, and
the mountains make me feel like I've been here before.
(00:21):
Did I live out West in a previous life? I wonder.
I get up and stretch my back. My neck cracks
all the way down my spine. I have only a
thin T shirt and I'm cold. All of a sudden,
we packed the bed rolls and break down the tent.
As I jump in the car, Ryan glances back at me.
I can read his face like a book. Ever since
(00:43):
we were children, I could feel an energy from my
brother when something was wrong, a bad omen a black feeling,
a warning of some type. It was his way of
reading the vibes around us. This is the day, I
can feel it coming, he says, like it's a failure
on his part. Right, this is not the day. Honey
will be fine, I tell him. Always the optimist, even
(01:05):
in the face of defeat, I smile. My heart cannot
be broken because I won't let it. I pull against
all my feelings. I have a bad feeling all of
a sudden, I look over at Dylan. He's much harder
to read. I grabbed Bryan's shoulders and squeeze the familiar
sister hug I know he needs. He starts the car
(01:26):
and drives down the black top. About twenty minutes later,
we stopped for gas. I clean out the car and
Dylan and I take turns pumping gas. Ryan hurries back
and tells me to get in the car. I look
at him and ask why, Because there's a fucking cop
right there. That's not a cop, I say right back,
it's an undercover I'm telling you. Welcome to The Dockerty Gang,
(01:50):
a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Studios, Episode seven.
We should have gone to sports Authority. I'm Courtney Armstrong.
I'me producer at Katie Studios with Stephanie Lydecker. We've been
working with producer Beth Greenwald on The Dougherty Gang for
months now. These three siblings have agreed to tell their
story for the very first time. Each from separate prisons.
(02:14):
Lee Grace Dockerty is at the Federal Correction Institute Aliceville
in Alabama. Ryan Docherty is in the U. S Penitentiary
Tucson in Arizona, and Dylan Docherty is at the Federal
Correction Institute in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Let's call from prison.
We thought we got away, and you know, everything just
(02:34):
seemed totally normal, like you're just in a car trip,
you're on the road, you're with your brothers. It was
like nothing was out of the ordinary. Then the moment
we would see a cop at intersection or on the highway,
we would just saw what we were doing, like, oh
my gosh, there's a cop. What are we gonna do?
Are we gonna get pulled over? It would turn it
would just like not wrenching. It was just very emotional.
(02:56):
We would just get really quiet and just kind of
look at each other like, well, this is is gonna happen.
It was a lot of insiety, and as soon as
the cop would turn off the road, it was like,
we just want lie back to normal. Within hours of
leaving their home in the Coachy, Florida, the Doughertes robbed
a bank and engaged in a shootout with police for
an entire week. The siblings have aided multiple agencies who
(03:17):
were after them. After crossing sixteen states, they were landing
in Colorado to hide out before heading south to Mexico.
Here's Dylan, I've been to Colorado before skiing in Vale.
There's a lot of remote areas and there's a lot
of the campground areas in the state, which is why
we definitially stayed in Colorado for a couple of days.
Ryan and Lee Grace had never been there. We hit
(03:38):
this one stretch of road that I remember, and we
must have drove for like thirty miles at like ten
thousand fucking seen elevation pluts, and it was just like
you were driving along the ridge line of a bunch
of connecting mountains. Gets hard to describe, like if there
was a mountain in there a series of tips that
happened to connect like a razor back, and you were
(03:59):
just driving right on the top of it. And like
there's overlooked spots where you get a pull over and
they got a little shaded benches and says ships, you
just get a sail forever and ever, and it's just
like blue and green and it's just amazing looking. And
it's that that was a cool part for it for
me saying that really beautiful scenery, the nature out in
(04:20):
Colorado and Utah was so it was so beautiful, you know,
once we got out of the Midwest, the United States
out west is so gorgeous. It picks a breath away,
you know, these big mountains, bloomy and being with my brothers,
here's the grace. Speaking with producer Beth Greenwald, was there
any thought of going your separate ways? Well, no, I
(04:42):
don't think at any point we really wanted to separate,
because the year was Once we get separated, how are
we going to meet back up? With no cell phones,
no meet up spots, no points actually get in contact
with each other. We did not want to be anywhere.
While we had a cellphone, nowhere were anything to electronic
was used, no email, you know, no text messages. Former
(05:04):
Colorado State Trooper Mark Panetta was aware of the Dougherty
sightings in his state. There were reports that they were
seeing in Colorado. That was the last we had heard
about it when I went to work that day. There
was the night before they were somebody who had seen
him in Colorado Springs with nowhere to sleep but the car.
The trio were cold and decided to camp out, but
they needed supplies. Here's Dylan. I'm an ari e I
(05:27):
right now I'm walking around. You know, I got the
ten and dude's like telling me all the cool features
about I'm like, yeah, man, that's all the kids of
Mestitos out. Great. Yeah, it's dollars swede man, and I
could got something like a little foam rollout pad and
just sat up there and I got always like a
little odds and then you know, the stuff we needed.
And I go over to the counter to check out,
(05:49):
and there was a couple of gentlemen in there that
I believe we're about to ship out. And I remember
there Bill, he like eighteen or nineteen, and they bought
three watches. And I've mentioned johna hey fellas, I appreciate
your service. Thank you for that. Then of course that
was my turn to pay for my stuff, and which
I did in cash as as Alwayte's like, well do
you want to warranty on it? We need see your
(06:09):
email at dress and and two forms of I D
and we'd like to get your thumb print. And I'm like,
this is all about a fucking tent. It was really weird,
like and I didn't realize there was all those questions
that came with was buying a tent. I just wanted
to buy the tent without happening to offer her my
you know, firstborn child as collateral. So Eli and are
I I should have went to sports authority. What the
(06:30):
funk was I thinking? Well, Dylan questions his shopping trip.
Ryan noticed they were getting some unwanted attention. After I
came out of store, Ryan and Lee Gray said that
some guy has kind of look kind of money. We're
getting the parking lot. I see this guy who's like,
give me the fucking Harry I Baul mcparkama are E
I and he like picks up his cell phone and
starts styling and then started talking. And I tell my
(06:51):
brother when we go out, like, hey, that dude just
made us. He just called the cops on us, like
we gotta go. He's like, all you're tripping, You're being paranoid.
I'm like, I'm not being paranoid. Former Wolsenburgh police Chief
Jim Chamberlain was one of the first to confront the Dochertyes.
The night before, my wife and I were watching the news.
We saw a news report that they possibly were spotted
(07:11):
at an Arii store in Colorado Springs, so we thought
they might be in the area here Stellen. They had
all these calls coming in all there, and they're here there.
You know, some poor lady in Tennessee that they thought
was Lee Grace. They tackled her in her mailbox and
just you know, they were ripping everything. Every poor person
driving a you know, innocent person driving a white super
(07:32):
was getting pulled over at gunpoint everywhere. And I think
the first time they had any kind of real like
here's where they are, you know, was when we were
supposedly spotted at the Rii store and Grace and Ryan
they called it a stink high. Local police were overwhelmed
with Dougherty sightings, investigating a sighting at Walmart. It sounded
(07:54):
like somebody was gonna buy ammunition and then they left.
You know, we're coming across a once you can fight
up here. Um from standing to go over to the
TV junction around my uncle's fourteen backed into the parking
lots there. There's a little white car that's trying to
sort of matching descriptions. Little guys they're looking for little
(08:14):
white card, a little doldkin end up next to it.
There was a female wandering around it. Um, I think
it's a little super It looks like a little super
rim among the front I can't tell for sure, but
possible fighting for some parties, for three parties that were
involved in the shooting. And they said it was a
white car that matched the description. Okay, they have a
(08:36):
dome tent set up. Okay, you can as a female
walking around the around the camp site. Well, multiple authorities
continued tracking the trio. They headed up into the mountains.
Here's Ryan, all right. Well, we drove off the side
of the road in one place, like up like onto
like a ravine and off and like I remember, like
(08:57):
I took fucking like a shower and like this running water.
It's like a moving body of water. It was like
really pretty had rocks and ship in the water. I took,
I fucking showered off because we've got like hygiene shipped
in the car. But I know that my sister and
brothers showered off, and like remember laying my clothes out
on the rocks. We did try sleeping out of doors
a few times. It is so cold in Colorado at night,
(09:20):
you feel like you're going to freeze. To death and
it's very wet. I remember just getting out of the
car and saying, oh no, So you know, we're in
the mountains almost the whole time. I'm used to living
at sea level. So it's hard on my chest, it's
hard on my head. I was getting this worst headaches,
just how mean counting headaches. I felt like I was
gonna have a braining eurysthm. We found a place. It
(09:42):
was like a little overlook off the side of the mountain.
Because color that was a bitch and ass place. Man,
Like if all the hipsters wanted to move there and
drove up all the fucking housing prices and some of
the other ships that they brought with them, that would
just be like a fucking slapping ass place to live.
Because like I've seen like people that were just tubing
and like a fucking open river, like some ship that
was running down off the mountain, and I know that
(10:03):
fucking water was called his ship. But it was a
whole funkload of cars, And it's not like it was
someplace that was like bought on our own. We got
these expensive paths from the ri I Camping supply store,
and we got a little I believe It was a
two or three man tent, very small, very small tent.
Everything was extremely expensive, and that night we slept in
(10:25):
the tent on the floor on the ground, just the
plane ground. There was nothing out there, there was no
camp site. It was just a little off the road
area with dirt. We just pulled off and put the
tent right next to the cart. Here's Trooper Vanetta. The
people that saw them and reported them called line when
one and reported them when they were in the Rye
(10:46):
area or sant Isabel, because they had camped somewhere that
night up in that sant Azabel area. So the reporting
party on that was a former trooper and I want
to say it was his father in law. I saw
them and then called nine one one and kind of
got the ball rolling. Dylan and Ryan pick up the story.
And I think I was pumping gas in lead grades
(11:08):
at the time, been riding in the back seat, and
I seek Ryan said something to me before I maybe
I said something right. I was like, and I think
it's kind just made us because he kind of like
a slow trying to do the parking lot. So my
brother and sister, I'm like, hey, that's a fucking crown
vic with steel rims with a cage, and it's got
the laptop stand and it's got the little piggly wiggly
(11:30):
curly Q antenna on the back for the radios, very
clearly an unmarked card, Like I spotted it, and I
told my brothers, the sisters in my great this fucking consciousness,
and he knows who we are, like, we're fucked. Like
you just slow rolled behind us, grabbed our tag, rolled
out in front of us, tried to park and look
nonchalant in front of the store, but like, I'm not stupid.
This motherfucker just popped us. And they're like, oh, you'rena
(11:52):
being paranoid, You're crazy, And I'm like, alright, butt Dylan
realized that Ryan could be right. He pulled across the
street and across the road and park at another stop sign.
It was kind of like and he was able to
pull back out on the highway whichever way we went,
he was able to pull out behind us. So the officer,
you know, sitting across the road, and I'm like, I
(12:13):
think he made him and he just did his damn
this too. Once he looked over here for about point
five seconds, he looked directly away and made sure not
to look in this direction ever again. So like I'm
gonna observe it, dude, and I'm not stupid, like I
knew what it was. I was like, fuck, they saw us,
you know, for the gas in the car. And then
you know, we pulled out, and when we pulled out,
(12:34):
he pulled out behind us, and not directly behind us,
like when we went across the interstate, we pulled into
the other cast station park line. We've right around and
came back out to the gas station. And when back
across the overpass and we're we're literally meeting each other.
You know, we're not head on collision, but he's you know,
heading east and we're heading west now, and he kind
(12:58):
of did like a little bobble like he was gonna
pull in front of us. And I think there was
a part of him it was like I don't know
if I really want to pull in front of these
people just yet. No, but he flicked his he clicked
his light to kind of be like a bobble like
he was gonna pull in front of us. And he
hit and he went straight path us and at that time,
we can jumped on the interstate and he's down and
(13:19):
then he went across and pulling. You turned really fast.
We were going southbound and we were moving fast at
that point. You know, I can remember there was a
point where the greats like, well, maybe we just turn
ourselves in. Former Wolsonburg Chief of Police Jim Chamberlain was
aware the Docerties were close. He just didn't know how
close because he was off duty and in the middle
of vacation. I didn't have my radio or anything with me.
(13:43):
I was checking my emails and got the flyer um
for the Docrty gang being on the loose, and so
I made copies of that and gave it to all
the officers that we're working that day. Here again, his
State Trooper Mark Bonetta talking to Beth Well. I was
in Plubblo at the time, so about thirty five miles
south the Colorado Springs. We've seen um the news stories
about what happened in Florida, about them shooting at the officer,
(14:06):
disabling his vehicle, and then they just kind of disappeared
off the grid. Hadn't heard anything about where they were
or what they were doing. Did you think at all,
by any chance that they could end up coming through? Sure,
you know, because Publo, you know, and called the Springs
in Denver. They're all along right along and which you know,
major interstay all the way from you know, Uh, I'll
(14:28):
pass out north, you know, so it's a major thoroughfare.
And then we have we also had Highway fifty that
goes Intersex Pueblo east and west. So uh, yeah, there's
always a chance, you know, you think, well, it could happen.
There's a lot of back roads that are you can
get from Colorado Springs around Pueblo. Meanwhile, Chamberlain's secretary said
there was a sighting of the Dougherties at a nearby campground.
(14:50):
Sitting in the office, that's when our secretary Andrea came
over and said, Hey, are you hearing what's going on?
I'm like, no, I don't have my radio. What's going on? Well,
they I think they might have seen car matching the
description of the fugitives at a campground in Colorado City.
They're going to check it out. I was like, oh, okay,
(15:10):
So I had a radio on my desk. I turned
a radio on, I'm listening, and I'm like, well, you know,
probably you know, another one of a hundred tips called
into the state patrol. They're going to check it out,
because you know, whenever you gotta cut tip called in
like that, you have to go check it out just
to make sure. So I wasn't thinking too much of
it until I started hearing, oh crap, they took off.
(15:34):
Now there's a pursuit. Let's stop here for another quick break.
We'll be back in a moment. Beth gets Ryan's initial
reaction to being chased. So that first moment when they
(15:56):
turned on their lights and you hear sirens, what are
you thinking? All the lights? And I was, like, I
really thought. I was like, man, we'll just we'll dust
them again. Look away from him again here, But like, man,
they have plenty of time to set their ship up,
and like Colorado was on point and they got us.
You know what I thought was, We're gonna have to
fucking slow down and chop the block out of this
(16:16):
car because I don't think I'm gonna be able to
outrun them. I mean I tried to at first, because
I don't want to have to shoot it too, because
no matter how good aim I have, an a K
is good for about six that's it. Right after that,
the bullet just kind of goes walking and you're not
really aiming, You're just praying and praying, and like, I
don't want to hit innocent civilians. If I shoot a cop,
(16:37):
you know, I feel bad, but only so bad. We
weren't doing light speed, but we were, we were moving
and during that that whole situation, you know, I remember,
I remember, I just thought this was the end, this
was it. And there were so many cars. There were
so many cop cars behind us. I want to say
it was like saven or a possibly many it's nine,
(16:58):
and like every extry we went by was like two
or three more you know, cop cars on the and
it was you know, it's kind of a theme from
smoking to man and I'm like, man, this is just
not it's not gonna end. Well, this is this is him, folks.
You know, here's where it's all going to end. And
you know, I mean, honestly, at that time, I was like,
I didn't feel like we're gonna paying this flight. Cot
(17:20):
out the window, here's super Vanetta. It's hard to have
like a single channel with when you have two comp center.
Information was slow to get out, and then we were
told that the s O was following them. The Sheriff's
department was following themselves on the interstate. It's like, oh crap.
So we turned around and went back and got an
interstate and started heading south. I didn't realize that we
(17:41):
didn't know that there was an unmarked car that was
following him. I think he had his his lights wrong.
He was actually trying to trying to contact them, and
unbeknownst to us, we didn't know. And all of sudden,
you know, he pulled over and passed him, and all
of a sudden, I'm like, oh ship, I'm behind him
right now. That's like and we were trying to catch
(18:02):
up to him. So we had our lights and s
irons on stuff, and and that was it. You know,
It's like, oh, ship, the chases are and that's them,
and here we go. Here's Beth speaking to Dylan and Vanetta.
Did you think there was a chance you were going
to get away? I don't think you ever think you're
caught until I put those an cuffs on you, you
know what I mean? And I don't know people and
(18:22):
people say different things and and maybe it's just me,
but you know, I didn't. I really didn't want to.
I didn't want to be caught. I don't look crazy
bit once to be caught. How long are you guys
being chased by whoever's chasing you? At that point between
like nine to twelve minute somewhere around there. It's actually
(18:43):
a fairly long interstate chase, arranging between about eighty two
so over about thirty something miles. And at that point
was it just a high speed pursuit or they already
started um shooting. It was probably just after we crossed
over into the Horfordal County line and a little past that.
And then I and I heard it right like, I
(19:05):
heard the the popping north and first thought to myself,
I was like, ah, are you kidding me? I'm getting
a flat tire, because that's what I sounded like. And
then I realized, oh, hell, they're shooting, you know. So
I reported was like shots fired, you know, and I
backed off right. I I squewed, I kind of you know,
got down to my seat a little bit squitched down
(19:27):
because I knew they had shot up that off through before.
From the other story. Chief Chamberlain picks up the story
and then I started hearing you know, stay patrol over
the radio saying yes, we're being shot at, and I
was like, oh, yep, so that is probably them. So
that's when I made the decision. Even though I don't
have my stuff with me, I had my gun lit
(19:47):
a police officer, I'm gonna go help. So I was like,
I asked Andrea ur secretary, Hey, is there anything wrong
with car aid out there? She said nope. He's like, okay,
well I'm taking it. So I went up and jump
in the car, started up, lights and sirens going, had
the radio on, listening, thinking to myself, Okay, I can
stop by my house, I can grab my vest and
(20:11):
then I can continue because my house was on the
way to the highway. And as I'm going, lights and
sirens faster, I keep listening to you know, they're saying
mile markers, and I'm like okay, doing some calculations in
my head, thinking okay, if I stop, then they won't
be there in time because they had a stop sticks
(20:33):
set up at exit fifty two underneath the overpass. Beth
picks up the story with Ryan. You said, uh, this
is you're being chased, and who's firing back at the police.
You know what, that's a question that you should probably
have either my sister brother, you know what, I'm saying
because I can't specifically say to that because I don't
(20:56):
know what. They're still trying to fight in court and whatnot.
Here's former police chief Chamberlain. So I was thinking, you know,
if any one of them starts pointing again at me,
I'm shooting first, because you know, no vest, no nothing,
They've already shot at officers on the highway. Yeah, if
it's gonna be them or me, it's going to be them.
I felt like we could have gotten a life at times,
(21:17):
its charm or whatever, but law enforcement had a plan.
Supermanettic explains, they're shooting at us, you know, So we
we backed off and not a lot, but enough to
keep him in sight but give him a little bit
of a distance between me and them. And we were
in communication with Trooper Nova, who was right at the
exit in Walsenburg, who was working a construction over time detail,
(21:41):
and the plan was that he was going to deploy
the stop sticks there and try to try to disable
the tire in the vehicle by flattening the tires and
hopefully put this thing to rest. We're going to take
a quick break here. We'll be back in a moment.
M The police were mobilized and the spike strips were
(22:10):
in place. Here's Chief Chamberlain followed by Choper Banetta. So
I was like, okay, I'll head southbound on the fifty
two on ramp because I could see him coming. I'll
just fall in at the end of the pursuit, and
then I'll help out with whatever happens after they get cut.
After they go over the stop sticks, you couldn't go
left right because there's guardrails and whatnot, so you know,
(22:32):
they wouldn't really have much of an escape route. So
hopefully that I would force him to stay on the
road and then the stop sticks would be enough to
get at least one or not all the tires flat.
When we were in the car and south, you know,
with the paid to nine police cards chasing us and
cops on every you know, off ram and go on
(22:52):
very overpath, we just kind of there was a multiple
construction zones between the county line and to where it
actually ended, so we're lanes were shifted and there was
cones and jersey barriers and whatnot. So it was kind
of the kind of sketchy going through their blasting with
with other traffic on whatnot. But Luckily it was it
(23:12):
was light enough traffic that it wasn't wasn't too horrible.
You know, I told everybody the car, said, I you know,
I love everybody in the car, you know, and however this,
how this turns out, nothing will have to change. It
was really calm at that point, you know. I mean
the winners were down in the car and you know,
the wind swifting, and but I kind of had I
(23:34):
had like a real kind of a sense of calm
as far as you know, just where we were and
what was was you don't have all those variables and choices,
and I guess it's uh here to deal with. And
you know, our offices were either you know, we'll get
away or or we won't. Ryan continues, I was doing
(23:54):
about like one authority when I swerved to avoid the
bike strips that they deployed, and I mean actually hit
the spike strips. What happened was is I went off
the shoulder slightly with the two driver's side tires front rear,
and I was shadowing the brakes, which you know, I'm
putting like five percent pressure on the brakes. And when
it went from uneven terrain from like gravelly bullshit graphs,
(24:19):
and then I rode back up onto the shoulder, and
when it caught coming back up on the lip, like
the antalock brakes got piste off, have an uneven you know,
the brakes on the right side have regular interstate tractions.
The brakes on the left side are getting fucking weird
feedback from the gravel. And I don't know if like
the abs got confused or what it was, but like
it locked the brakes hard. Here again is Chief Chamberlain.
(24:42):
They swerved to try to avoid the stop sticks and
started sliding, rolled over a couple of times, and their
car rolled up on the guard rail right in front
of where I was. And as we started to spin,
we're drifting sideways. I tried to jam the car up
in the river earth and cut the wheel hard to
the left, which because we were spinning, we're starting to
(25:05):
drift towards the driver's side. So I cut the wheel
hard to the left in order to get the tires
to turn that way, because as you're going backwards, the
steering is reverse. And then I was hoping that I'd
be able to stomp on it and reverse with the
wheel cut, sling its background forward, drop it and drive
and keep going, but it wasn't able to because it
drifted so hard sideways that we slipped off from the
(25:29):
driver's side of the interstate to the passenger side of
the interstate. And when we hit the grass there, we
just spun out and started rolling the car, you know,
flip and grabbed a little traction, flipped and started rolling.
We might have rolled over times. I don't know. You know,
(25:49):
I went on the window of that car, you know,
when the car rolls, we're doing an excess of obviously
about to wear my feet out, and had I've been
wearing this a seat route I think was the way
to the roof tore open on the cars. He made
a picture, but the roof is torn opening like like
a great big, you know, piece of like a sharp
(26:09):
tunicy and like rolled down the inside the car. And
when it was said and done, thought it might have
been the last time that I've seen my brother. And
so I shouted out some I was like, man, I
love you guys, I yelled at her. Police dropped the gun.
Police dropped the gun. Police dropped the gun. And the
third time I said, dad, she looked up at me
and stopped and spread her legs a little bit starting
(26:34):
reason the gun that you had towards me. More on
that next time. If you're over eighteen years old and
want to see pictures of Lee Grace and Ryan Dougherty
or find their addresses to write them in prison, go
to our Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. The Dougherty Gang
is executive produced by Stephanie Lye Decker and me Courtney Armstrong,
(26:56):
along with Beth Greenwald, Sean McEwen, and Joseph Morgan. Editing
and sound design is by Jeff Tis. Additional producing by
Chris Graves and Jeff Shane. The Doctor Gang is a
production of I Heart Radio and Katie Studios. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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