Ky. deputy wanted in slaying captured in Iowa

updated 9:03 a.m. ET Oct. 7, 2008

SMITHS GROVE, Ky. - A Kentucky sheriff's deputy accused of killing his ex-girlfriend has been captured in Iowa, authorities said Tuesday.

Randall Creek, 41, was caught at a motel in Waterloo, Iowa, about 600 miles from Smiths Grove, Ky., where Debbie Rediess, 46, was gunned down Sunday, police said.

The 41-year-old Creek confessed in an e-mail to killing Rediess, according to police, who say he also sent e-mails taunting police and threatening a jailer.

In an e-mail to the Daily News of Bowling Green hours before the killing, Creek said Rediess ended their relationship because he wouldn't set a wedding date. He did not threaten her in that e-mail.

"I don't blame her for leaving but I guess the message I am trying to get across to couples in this area is never take for granted that your spouse or girlfriend will always be there," he wrote. "To my darling Debbie I love you very much and I hope that one day we will be married and live happily ever after."

The letter was one of several Creek had written to the paper in recent years, the newspaper reported.

State police got Creek's personal e-mail address from the suspect's brother and sent their own message asking Creek to turn himself in. Three hours and 35 minutes later, Creek responded, saying he had become jealous after seeing his ex-girlfriend with another man.

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