14 DAY TRIAL // Three prisoners that escaped from jail in Missouri have been located in a scrap yard, just four miles (6.5 km) away from the jailhouse.
Matthew Brandon Cook, Kade Reaves Stringfellow and Rodney Joe Green disappeared from Butler County Jail in Poplar Bluff at approximately 11:30 p.m. Monday, March 11.
A manhunt followed, leading law enforcement officials to search for them in the salvage yard, bringing a canine unit along to pinpoint their location.
As Cook and Stringfellow were awaiting trial on murder charges and Green had been arrested for multiple counts of assault, police warned the public about them being at loose and possibly armed, Latin Times reports.
The suspects took drywall ceiling tiles apart and used the air duct to move through the building, descending into a room that allowed them access to an exit. They used the main jail entrance to run out and followed nearby railroad tracks to the scrap yard.
"It is evident to us that they obviously traveled the railroad tracks," Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs describes.
He blames faulty design and low-quality materials used in building the jailhouse for the prisoners being able to get out, KFVS indicates.
"Myself and the previous two sheriffs have fought the design and construction flaws in this jail. It's frustrating beyond words.
"We have drywall ceilings in a jail. That's just unfathomable. The walls don't go completely up to the ceiling. It just baffles the mind when the jail was being built why there would be these shortcomings," he said.
"Like any jail there's a lot of noise, ambient noise, doors slamming, constant buzzers, inmates asking constant request," he adds.
94 inmates were being held at the Poplar Bluff facility at the time the inmates escaped. The prison has the capacity to house 125 prisoners, but only two guards have been on watch that night.