First, the inmates reportedly removed concrete blocks from a deteriorating wall and then employed the sheets in the escape from Landry Parish jail in Opelousas, a parish seat of about 15,000 residents located about 130 miles northwest of New Orleans.
Police were pursuing leads on Saturday to locate 24-year-old Keith Eli, who has been at large for three days, sheriff’s office spokesman Mark LeBlanc told the Associated Press.
Eli had been jailed on a charge of second-degree murder.
“We would prefer that he surrender himself peaceably,” St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz said in a statement. “But we will not rest until he is captured.”
The two other escapees are no longer unaccounted for. One of them, 24-year-old Johnathan Jevon Joseph, jailed on charges of rape and other crimes, was captured Friday following a brief chase.
Joseph had been hiding out at a home, authorities said, and he ran to a nearby storage shed where he ultimately surrendered, LeBlanc said.
Police found the third inmate, Joseph Allen Harrington, 26, at home on Thursday. They used a loudspeaker to urge him to come out and surrender, said Port Barre Police Chief Deon Boudreaux, but the standoff ended when the inmate took his own life with a hunting rifle.
Before his escape, Harrington was facing several felony charges, including home invasion.
Louisiana was the site of another bold escape earlier this year when ten inmates busted out of a New Orleans jail by crawling through a hole behind a toilet.
The escape made national headlines after it was discovered that the escapees left a note that read, “To [sic] Easy Lol.” It took five months before all ten were finally captured.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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