During that last telephone conversation, there was no hint that he was going to break out, she said.

“He sounded fine,” Mary Fuller said. “He was doing fine. That’s why it shocked me when all this happened. He didn’t give any kind of inkling that he was going to do this.”

If she could talk to her nephew, she said she’d urge Kelvin to turn himself in.

“Give yourself up; please give yourself up,” Mary Fuller said. “I would plead with him. I would beg him, plead, to give himself up. He’s only getting himself deeper into trouble.

“I’d tell him I love him, his family loves him and God loves him.”

Along with state police, the Anderson Police Department, U.S. Marshal’s Service, Indiana Department of Correction and Lake County Sheriff’s Department are involved in the search for Fuller.

Fuller pleaded guilty in October 1992 to charges of armed robbery, burglary and arson.

The arson and burglary charges stemmed from Fuller breaking in and setting fire to the Anderson offices of gospel singer Sandi Patty at 2200 Madison Square in April 1990. The blaze caused an estimated $650,000 in damage.

His earliest possible release date was March 2012, according to the DOC. Fuller was also serving sentences for robbery and escape charges in Hancock and Marion counties.

Gawor said he received “a half-dozen” tips about Kelvin Fuller after the “America’s Most Wanted” segment aired. He said two of the tips were discarded outright, while investigators are still checking out the remaining leads. He said the television show might do a longer segment in the future if he remains on the run.

Gawor said it likely was Fuller who contacted Fox 59 and the newspaper. When Fuller called The Herald Bulletin, the Social Security number and date of birth he provided matched those found in court records from previous arrests. In a second, shorter call to the newspaper, Fuller also correctly named the attorney who represented him in his arson and burglary case and the judge, Madison Circuit Court Judge Fredrick Spencer, who presided over the criminal matter.

“I would be pretty confident that it was Kelvin, and he was reaching out for some help,” Gawor said. “I think if he didn’t care, he wouldn’t reach out to protect his reputation and how he was treated at Westville.”

In the phone conversation with The Herald Bulletin, Fuller admitted to stealing a car near Westville, robbing a bus driver in Lake County and a bank branch in Fishers. However, he denied law enforcement accounts that he injured the bus driver during the first robbery.

Gawor said that Fuller’s version of events is inaccurate. He said Fuller strangled the bus driver, whose name hasn’t been released, while the two were inside the bus.

“She even says at one point that, ‘I can’t speak because I’m being choked,” Gawor said. “He was a danger before he went into prison. His actions don’t portray someone who’s not a danger to society.”