By Cleve Wiese

Published: May 2, 2008

A violent fugitive featured on the television show “America’s Most Wanted” might be loose in the area, police said Friday.
Local police and the U.S. Marshal’s Service are seeking Chad Allen Shores, 36, an escaped robbery convict from Oregon with ties to Lynchburg and possibly Waynesboro.
Authorities received information Monday indicating that Shores might be in Waynesboro, city police Sgt. Kelly Walker said. Following up on the lead, police linked Shores to an individual in Lynchburg – a connection that gave credence to the earlier information, Walker said. 
Court records indicate that Shores might have several relatives living in the Lynchburg area. Police also have learned of a possible link to Waynesboro, Walker said.
Shores was last seen in February in Hawaii, according to the “America’s Most Wanted” Web site.  Police say Shores might have been working in sugar cane fields there as a day laborer, the site said.
Shores now might be living in the Valley under an alias, Walker said. Patrol officers with the Waynesboro and Staunton police departments and the Augusta County Sheriff’s Department have been issued photographs of the fugitive.
Shores escaped while battling a 10,000-acre forest fire as part of a prison work gang. He was sentenced to four years in an Oregon prison for burglary and coercion after a 2003 attack on a former girlfriend, police said.
Shores beat the woman for several hours and threatened to slit her throat before a neighbor chased him off, according to the TV show’s Web site.
When the woman arrived home from work, the site said: “Shores forced himself into the house, shoved her into her bedroom, threw her down by her hair, and yelled ‘I’m going to kill you if you try to leave!’
Shores is a white male, 6 feet tall, weighing 168 pounds, with brown eyes and hair, according to a news release. He sometimes wears a backwards baseball cap.
Anyone who sees Shores should not approach him, but call Det. Ben Lemons at 540-942-6543, the U.S. Marshal’s service or a local police department.