Five inmates who broke out of the St. Francois County Detention Center on Tuesday are in custody, according to Missouri law enforcement.
“As of this morning, all escaped inmates have been located and taken into custody,” the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department reported in a post online Saturday along with photos of the inmates.
Authorities found one man in Missouri while the four others were located in Ohio, the agency explained:
As of this morning, all escaped inmates have been located and taken into custody. While Wilkins was captured in…
Posted by St. Francois County Sheriff's Department on Saturday, January 21, 2023
Michael Wilkins was captured Friday after being spotted alone in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, where police arrested him. He was eventually transported back to the detention center and is being held without bond, Fox News reported.
The other inmates are identified as Kelly McSean, Dakota Pace, Aaron Sebastian, and LuJuan Tucker.
Surveillance footage shows part of the inmates’ escape attempt with two of them crawling underneath a parking lot gate:
“I mean, five people all at once? That’s kind of crazy. It’s happened a couple of times before,” said a neighbor who lives near the jail.
The Fox report continued:
Tucker, Sebastian and McSean are known sex offenders “being held for crimes committed while confined in the Missouri Department of Corrections Sexual Offender Treatment Center,” the sheriff’s department said. “Dakota Pace and Michael Wilkins were being held on felony warrants.”
Tucker was previously charged with the rape of a 12-year-old girl, while McSean was being held on charges linked to the sexual assault of a 39-year-old woman.
During the jail break, the inmates gained access to a cell in their pod that was supposed to be sealed off due to plumbing problems, according to Chief Deputy Gregory Armstrong of the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday.
The group apparently removed the sink and toilet before climbing through a wall and accessing the roof where a contractor reportedly left a ladder propped against the building.
The St. Francois County Sheriff's Department has enlisted the help of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the United…
Posted by St. Francois County Sheriff's Department on Wednesday, January 18, 2023
The group found a secured lot at an office building off Highway 67 where they located a car that had temporary tags, the keys inside, and a full gas tank.
According to Armstrong, “They just got lucky. It’s a black eye, of course, that we didn’t want. Sometimes things happen.”
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