On a sunny day in April 2008, the lives of two bank tellers at the BB&T in Bowdon were changed forever when a bearded man forced them to the ground, tied them up and gagged them after demanding money over the barrel of a gun. A similar incident in Arkansas on Wednesday led to the suspect’s capture.

Just before closing time on April 17, an elderly man calmly entered the Bowdon bank and asked a teller if he could make a transaction. The man then pulled out a gun and had one of the tellers give him money. He bound the women with zip ties, gagged them and left just as calmly as he had entered, driving away in a tan or beige car.

“There were some good photographs from the surveillance equipment at the bank during the robbery,” said Brad Robinson, chief deputy at the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office. “We felt certain at that time that we would be able to locate a suspect.”

Wanted posters turned up no leads, and a similar bank robbery in Woodstock, shortly after the Bowdon robbery, turned out to be unrelated. Carroll County authorities hoped they had gotten a break on May 7, when a bearded white man wearing the same clothing as the Bowdon bank robber was caught on tape robbing a bank in Whitetop, Va. - which is in Grayson County and about the same size as Bowdon - in southern Virginia near the North Carolina border.

“It was no question that that was the same person,” Robinson said.

Despite the match, the suspect continued to elude authorities. The Sheriff’s Office and Bowdon Police Department kept in touch with Grayson County authorities and the FBI, but six months passed without a single lead. Robinson said he was beginning to wonder if the suspect had been jailed on other charges or died.

That all changed Wednesday. At a bank in the small town of Gassville, Ark., not far from the Arkansas/Missouri border, a scene eerily similar to the Bowdon bank robbery played out. A bearded man entered the bank, brandished a handgun and demanded money. Just like the robberies in Bowdon and Whitetop, the suspect was tying up the tellers and preparing to gag them. But the Arkansas State Police had been notified and entered the bank just as the suspect was gagging one of the tellers.

Police arrested 70-year-old Richard Joseph Bauer and placed him in the county jail. State police then contacted Bowdon police to tell them they had their bank robber.

“It’s a relief knowing that he’s caught, and I’m sure it will be a relief to the bank employees and our citizens to know that person is behind bars now,” Brock said.

Robinson said he feels confident Arkansas police are holding the suspect from the Bowdon robbery. Bauer allegedly drove a white Toyota Forerunner to the Arkansas bank, the same type of SUV the suspect in the Virginia robbery took off in. The suspect in all three robberies was also wearing the same clothing during each incident.

“He had the same clothes on, down to the ball cap and the windbreaker jacket,” Robinson said.

All three robberies had several other similarities. All three took place in small towns near a state border, all were armed robberies and the bank tellers were bound and gagged in all three incidents.

Robinson said that although Bauer has yet to confess to any of the robberies, authorities digging into his past found a history of bank robberies. Bauer was charged with three Florida bank robberies that took place in different cities between 1986 and 1987. Bauer was sentenced to a term in federal prison in 1997 and was released in 2005. He has since served time in Oregon for a probation violation.

Robinson said he has yet to learn Bauer’s permanent address, but he knows Bauer has spent time in both Oregon and Panama. Bauer may have also lived in Florida at some point.

The Sheriff’s Office has placed a hold on Bauer so he will have to face the armed-robbery charge in Carroll County at some point. Local authorities are still looking into the Bowdon incident to determine what additional charges could be added. Robinson said the FBI will probably handle Bauer’s investigation.

Robinson said he is glad Bauer has been captured from a law enforcement standpoint, but he is also glad for the Bowdon bank tellers who were victimized on April 17.

“The theft is bad, but to put somebody on their knees not knowing if they’re going to be home to see their husband and their children is enough in my mind to punish this guy very severely,” Robinson said.