A crime spree that included the shooting of a Kansas sheriff and undersheriff ended late Monday with the suspect — a former Marine — and his father dead.
It started just after 5 p.m. Monday in Sterling, about an hour northwest of Wichita. That’s when officials say David L. Madden, 37, shot Rice County Undersheriff Chad Murphy four times, including once in the neck.
Murphy had a warrant for Madden’s arrest, KBI Special Agent Stephen Rosebrough said at a news conference Tuesday. He would not disclose the nature of the warrant.
Madden was indicted last week on a federal firearms charge after a 2017 search of his home turned up a fully automatic AK-47 machine gun. He also was a suspect in the 2015 disappearance of Megan Foglesong of Alden, Rosebrough said.
When Madden shot Murphy, authorities think he had a woman and a child in his vehicle. He left the scene and went to his home in Alden to get guns and ammunition, Rosebrough said.
He then went to his father’s house, a few miles away near Raymond. The working theory Tuesday was that Madden shot and killed his father, 65-year-old Thomas T. Madden.
Then Rice County Sheriff Bryant Evans arrived at Thomas Madden’s house with a deputy. The younger Madden shot Evans in the leg at around 5:40 p.m., Rosebrough said.
Madden then got into a shootout with other officers, Rosebrough said, adding that his agency would review the officers’ body camera footage to get a clearer idea of what exactly happened.
Investigators said it appeared Madden died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Evans, the sheriff, was treated and released from a hospital. Murphy, the undersheriff, remained in critical but stable condition at a hospital in Wichita.
Madden was charged last week with one count of unlawful possession of a machine gun.
Court documents show Madden allegedly smuggled a fully automatic AK-47 machine gun into the U.S. from Iraq. He told an agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives during a Rice County Jail interview that he found the machine gun in Fallujah while fighting there for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Madden’s records released Tuesday by the Marine Corps do not indicate that he was ever deployed to Iraq. The records show that he served in the Marines from June 19, 2000, to April 15, 2004, attaining the rank of Private First Class, E-2 on Oct. 9, 2003. He was a light armored vehicle crewman, according to the records, and received a National Defense Service Medal, a decoration to recognize all military members who have served in active duty during a declared “national emergency.”
The AK-47 was found in March 2017 after Madden led law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase in February in Rice and Barton counties. He was arrested after a standoff with law enforcement at his home.
When KBI agents searched the Alden home after the chase,, they found several homemade explosives, according to the affidavit. There were two wooden crates full of 24 separate metal pipe bombs, each wrapped with metal bailing wire and some wrapped further with black electrical tape.
More explosive materials were found at the home, including one railroad torpedo, two types of hobby fuse, 12 containers of smokeless powders and two live 25mm TPOS-T ATJ military ordnance projectiles.
Because of Madden’s history with explosives, law enforcement had to be cautious approaching the house, Rosebrough said. By 12:10 a.m. Tuesday, officers had gone inside, where they found Madden and his father dead.
A missing person
After the chase, Madden was charged with aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, multiple counts of eluding a police officer and several traffic infractions, including going 100 mph in a 55 speed limit zone, court records show.
He spent 91 days in jail before posting a $30,000 bond May 23, 2017. He never spent another day behind bars.
The aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer charge was lowered to aggravated assault as part of a plea deal and many of the other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to 24 months of probation on Aug. 15, 2018, with the 91 days counting toward that sentence.
Rice County Attorney Remington Dalke said the court followed state sentencing guidelines for Madden’s convictions.
Before striking a plea deal, Madden’s attorney made a motion on Nov. 12, 2017, to prohibit the state or any of its witnesses from mentioning that he was a suspect in the disappearance of a person identified as “M.F.,” according to the motion.
His attorney was concerned about the “prejudicial effect” that would create.
Law enforcement previously said they feared foul play was involved in the disappearance of Foglesong, who was 21 when she was last seen in Alden in November 2015.
Foglesong has not been found.
Listed as an absconder
This January, Madden tried to reclaim property that was taken during the search of his home in 2017, excluding “any items deemed to be contraband or that the defendant cannot legally possess,” a court document says.
As part of his conviction, Madden was banned from possessing a gun or explosive device for 10 years.
The state denied Madden’s request to retrieve his property, saying federal charges were still possible.
On Feb. 12, a violation report and arrest warrant were issued for Madden. The warrant is sealed, and it is unclear what Madden’s violation was.
The ATF agent filed an affidavit in support of a firearm charge with the federal court on Feb. 27. A grand jury indicted Madden on April 23 with one count of possessing a machine gun.
Kansas Department of Corrections records show Madden is listed as an absconder on Feb. 11. Cheryl Cadue, a KDOC spokeswoman, said he would have been on intensive supervised probation through Central Kansas Community Corrections.
The director of that branch of community corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why Madden was listed as an absconder and what was done to find him.
Contributing: Judy Thomas of The Star
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© 2019 The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)
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