Police fear a retired park ranger accused of gunning down his daughter-in-law before fleeing into the wilderness of upstate New York seven-months ago is alive and still on the run.
Authorities previously believed that 73-year-old Eugene Palmer of Stoney Point was dead after escaping into Herriman State Park only moments after allegedly admitting to committing the cold-blooded crime.
After a manhunt failed to retrieve a body from the woods, Sgt. George Lutz of the Haverstraw Police Department told Fox News: 'We consider him to be armed and dangerous.'
Police accuse Palmer of fatally shooting Tammy Palmer, 39, three times as she was walking home from dropping her two children off at a school bus on September 24th.
After allegedly confessing to the crime to his sister, Elaine Babcock, she says he took off into the 45,000-acre park, an area authorities say he's well familiar with and backs onto their property.
'We thoroughly searched these woods over the course of two weeks, I don't believe he's here,' Sgt Lutz said. 'He knows that park like the back of his hand.'
Palmer's son also says he's convinced his father's dead with the 73-year-old being a severe diabetic.
Authorities' search has expanded internationally as well.
Palmer was charged with the murder of Tammy Palmer two months after she was killed.
His truck was found in nearby Harriman State Park on the same day Tammy was killed and officers began their search for him..
Tammy Palmer's family claimed that Eugene Palmer had began a campaign of harassment against her after the 39-year-old took out an order of protection against her estranged husband, John.
The order prevented him from entering the home where she was raising their two children, aged 12 and 16. She lived in a separate house but on the same property as her father-in-law.
Babcock, Palmer's sister claimed he rushed to her house straight after the killing and admitted what he'd done.
'He just came in and said, "Here’s money to pay my taxes with, I’ve had enough.
"I shot and killed Tammy. Give me an hour to get away and then do whatever you have to do — call the police... whatever you have to do," and then he just took off,' Babcock told CBS.
Babcock said she immediately called police.
Search teams began hunting woods for the man, a retired park ranger, using tracking dogs and helicopters. They soon discovered his vehicle, a 1995 green Dodge Ram pickup truck.
Tammy Palmer's parents are struggling to come to terms with the loss of their daughter. They say her relationship with her father-in-law had grown increasingly ugly, culminating in a fight.
'She told me "Mommy, don’t worry I’ll be alright." I don’t think she ever thought that this man would kill her,' Tammy's mother Violet Pannirello told CBS.
'She’s gone. She’s resting. She’s not scared anymore. It’s so sad,' Pannirello said.
Detectives have previously revealed the details of Palmer's criminal past and warned that he is believed to be dangerous - owning to a large gun collection.
It has been reported by police that the grandfather had previously threatened to kill a Department of Environmental Conservation officer.
He was arrested and charged with second-degree aggravated harassment after he made repeated 'life threatening' calls to Department of Environmental Conservation employee Kenneth Didion’s home over a period of months starting in December 1984, The Journal News reported.
Palmer, working as a truck driver at the time, pleaded guilty in April 1986 and the next month was sentenced to one year probation and fined $750. He also was ordered to avoid any contact with Didion for a year.
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