As a functional unit manager for the Missouri Department of Corrections, Mark Parkhurst went beyond his normal duties in April when he received an unusual phone call.
A man requested that an offender at Crossroads Correctional Center cease contact with a woman. Parkhurst asked if the woman was being manipulated by this man. He was concerned about her well-being as a result of her responses.
So Parkhurst spoke with the offender who was the woman's fiancé and learned the first man was an ex-offender with a warrant for his arrest due to absconding, said Terry Page, assistant warden at Crossroads, who nominated Parkhurst for the State Employee of the Month.
Parkhurst then provided the woman's contact information to the U.S. Marshal's office. The caller was arrested at her location in Virginia.