SALAMANCA — Edward Kindt, who was convicted of killing Penny Brown while she was jogging here on Mother’s Day 1999 and later paroled from prison, was captured in Salamanca early Wednesday after fleeing from Poughkeepsie last Thursday where he is serving parole.
Kindt was paroled from state prison more than a year ago after the Parole Board voted 2-1 in February 2023 to release him under conditions despite numerous letters from area residents and elected officials demanding he not be released.
The Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office was notified by state Parole officials late Tuesday that Kindt had been missing for a few days. Later, a state Parole official said Kindt’s ankle bracelet had gone dark last Thursday, and blamed a computer failure for not notifying local law enforcement officials for six days.
Kindt, who was 15 at the time he was arrested was charged with sexually attacking Brown while she was jogging on the old Pennsylvania Railroad trail and strangling her with a dog leash.
Undersheriff Eric Butler told the Olean Star Wednesday morning that once the Sheriff’s Office was notified by the state Parole Office of Kindt having fled the area, the Criminal Bureau and members of the Southern Tier Regional Drug Task Force were alerted to search for him.
He was located shortly after 1 a.m. on West Ave., in the home he grew up in, Butler said.
The only other person in the home was a brother of Kindt, Norman Southerland. Kindt’s mother Grade was not at home at the time of his arrest.
Detectives outside the house established communications with Kindt, now 41, who was inside the house. “They were able to coax him out of the house,” where he was taken into custody without incident, Butler said.
He was held in the county jail until state Parole officials could make arrangements to return him to Dutchess County where he faces arraignment for violating parole.
It is not clear exactly when or how Kindt arrived in Salamanca, according to Butler. State Parole officials have cited the ongoing investigation for not sharing more information with the Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m just glad we got him picked up quickly,” the undersheriff added. “We had 15 guys looking for him last night. People in this community are genuinely afraid of him.”
Butler noted that Kindt was paroled to the Poughkeepsie area last year after an uproar from local residents and elected officials when they appeared ready to parole him in Cattaraugus County.
As a condition of his parole, he was barred from returning to Salamanca and the Seneca Nation Tribal Council has forbidden Kindt from being on Seneca Nation territory.
“We should have been notified,” Butler said. “Had they reached out to us when he disappeared” it’s possible he could have been apprehended sooner.
“We were initially told he disabled his ankle bracelet,” Butler said. It appears now that he just didn’t charge it.
Assemblyman Joseph Giglio, R-Gowanda, was briefed on the search for Kindt and his arrest Wednesday morning.
“We got exactly what we should have expected,” Giglio said. “A person who has never had respect for the law. He came back to Seneca Nation territory, where he has been banished from.”
Giglio blasted Parole officials for not notifying the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office when they realized Kindt had left Poughkeepsie. “They don’t do what they are supposed to do to protect the community.”
The Parole Board members who voted 2-1 to release Kindt also bear some responsibility, Giglio said. “I don’t understand it. He didn’t have a stellar record in prison.”
Giglio said it is completely unacceptable that it took the state Parole officials six days to notify the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office when they knew he was not at his group home in Dutchess County on Thursday.
Booth Giglio and Butler said they hope Kindt will be sent back to state prison to complete his original sentence — nine years to life — for the parole violation.
