Prisoner on the run after Shawshank Redemption-style jailbreak in Colorado
Staff failed to make proper body counts, with the inmates leaving bundles of clothes in their beds to make it appear as if they were still there.
By Russell Hope, news reporter
Wednesday 26 July 2023 12:59, UK
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Mark Fox pushed through a dry wall to escape. Pic: Bent County Sheriff
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Mark Fox. Pic: Bent County Sheriff
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A prisoner is on the run in the US after he and three other inmates staged a Shawshank Redemption-style jailbreak.
The four, who were being held at Bent County Jail in southeast Colorado, reportedly pushed through a dry wall ceiling in their cell, which used to serve as a kitchen, and used bundled blankets to make it seem as if they were actually in their beds.
From there, the inmates got through the roof of an adjoining bathroom, US news agency, KOAA said, citing Bent County Sheriff Jake Six.
One of them, Mark Fox, 46, is still on the run, while two others have been captured and the fourth found dead from a suspected drug overdose, Sheriff Six said on Tuesday.
Benjamin Valdez, 34, was found dead in nearby Pueblo, according to the Bent County Emergency Management Agency.
The other two unnamed inmates who escaped were recaptured when they called for an ambulance for an overdose early on Tuesday.
Fox was described as a white man, bald, 6 feet, 3 inches (190cm) tall and weighing 210 pounds (95kg).
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The quartet’s escape has echoes of that in the film, Shawshank Redemption and the Stephen King book it is based on.
In the movie, a prisoner knocks through a wall, covering his escape hole with a poster of film star Rita Hayworth before breaking out via a sewage pipe, leaving clothes in his bed to make it appear he was still there.
All of southeast Colorado’s law enforcement personnel are “actively searching for Mr Fox” and US marshals have been called and will shortly be helping in the hunt, Sheriff Six said on Tuesday.
The exact time of the escape is unclear, but Mr Six said it was either late on Sunday evening or early on Monday morning, aided by staff failing to make an accurate head count either on Monday morning or Tuesday morning.
The jail houses inmates from both Bent County and next door Otero County, he added.
The Prowers County Sheriff’s Department is investigating what happened while security arrangements at the jail are being checked by the Department of Corrections, Mr Six said.
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