She Was A Prison Warden’s Wife Who Helped An Inmate To Escape: But Was She In Love With Him, Or Suffering From Stockholm Syndrome?

gatsi - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only
gatsi - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only

In 1994, a woman named Bobbi Parker helped Randolph Dial, a convicted murderer, escape from the prison where her husband worked as a deputy warden.

She was kidnapped by Dial and lived with him for over a decade. It is believed that she was held captive and brainwashed by him, but some say that they were really in love.

Today, we’ll be diving into whether her feelings for him were genuine or if she was suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

Most of us have an idea as to what Stockholm syndrome is. It’s what happens when someone is taken as a hostage and ends up developing a bond with their captor.

However, experts note that this bond is formed as a survival tactic, a way to cope with the stress of a hostile situation.

So, what happened between Bobbi Parker and Randolph Dial? Bobbi Parker and her husband, Randy, lived next to the Oklahoma State Reformatory.

They had two daughters together, aged eight and 10. Next door, an inmate named Randolph Dial was being held at the facility.

He had received a life sentence for the murder of a karate instructor in 1981 after drunkenly confessing to it in 1986. Aside from being a murderer, Dial was an artist, sculptor, and master manipulator.

He had been given special privileges at the facility, so he was allowed to live in minimum-security housing outside of the prison.

gatsi – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only

He even persuaded officials to let him start an arts program to help with inmate rehabilitation. Before long, he was using a kiln in the Parkers’ garage, which had been transformed into a studio for the art program. As a result, Bobbi often spent a lot of time alone with him.

On August 30, 1994, Randy went to work, leaving Dial in the garage as usual. When he returned home later that afternoon, he found a note from his wife, saying that she had gone shopping.

He started to worry when evening rolled around and asked an officer to check on Dial’s cell. It turned out that Dial had escaped and taken Bobbi with him.

Police found Bobbi’s minivan in Wichita Falls, Texas, but it was empty except for the cigarettes that Dial was known to smoke. Over 10 years would go by before Bobbi was seen again.

In 2005, the police received a tip-off as to Bobbi’s whereabouts from someone in Campti, Texas. When police forced their way into a mobile home on a rural chicken farm near the Louisiana border, they discovered Dial and Parker living together.

They had been going by the names Richard and Samantha Deahl. Dial was arrested without incident.

Later, he told reporters that he had abducted Bobbi at knifepoint and convinced her to stay with him as they moved across Texas.

Eventually, they settled at the chicken farm in 2000, where she pretended to be his wife. He prevented her from escaping by threatening to harm her family but claimed he never would’ve followed through with the threats.

In the mobile home, agents from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation were sifting through the pair’s belongings.

They came across condoms and Valentine’s Day cards that the couple had given to each other. Some locals did not believe Bobbi was kidnapped, as she frequently drove alone and would’ve had plenty of opportunities to make a break for it.

Other residents thought that Bobbi always seemed unhappy and nervous. Anyone who visited their home would be greeted by Dial and his gun, demanding to know why they were there.

In 2008, Bobbi was arrested and charged with helping Dial escape from prison. Dial had passed away the previous year, but he had always maintained that he had kidnapped Bobbi and held her against her will.

The prosecution stated that Bobbi and Dial had been in love, while the defense declared that Dial had drugged and abducted her.

Bobbi ended up receiving a one-year sentence for helping Dial escape and served six months before being released in 2012.

The former associate director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Frank M. Ochberg, said that Bobbi might have been suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

But if she had chosen to stay with Dial out of fear that he would harm her family, the syndrome would not apply. To this day, the exact nature of their relationship is unclear.

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Emily  Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a ... More about Emily Chan

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