Arkansas Searches For Two Prison Escapees Suspected Of Murder

Authorities are still searching on Tuesday for two men who escaped from their prison cell at a southwest Arkansas jail, after they used a hacksaw to saw through metal bars on their window, jumping out and skirting a fence topped with razor wire.

Corrections officials realized on Monday that the two murder suspects, Cortez Hooper and Quincy Stewart, were missing from their jail cell in Texarkana. A guard checked the pair at 3:15 a.m., but found that they were missing about an hour later, according to Chief Deputy Duke Schofield, who works with the Miller County sheriff’s department.

Yahoo News reports that Schofield stated:

“Somebody got the hacksaw blades to them, and we don’t know if they were handed off during a transport, or during a court appearance, or what, but there is an internal investigation into that and we think we know. We’re just trying to get enough proof.”

Authorities believe that the two men are still in the area, because, as Shofield stated:

“They have extensive families here. They may have left town, but I just got a feeling that they’re still here.”

The Chief Deputy also stated that the police dogs tracked the scent of both men through the woods and to the highway nearby. Unfortunately, the dogs lost their scent, making authorities believe that the pair of suspected murderers were picked up by a vehicle. Their jail uniforms were dropped in the street a ways up the road, but no scent was found near them, leading investigators on the case to believe that they were dropped from a car.

The Beaumont Enterprise reports that Hooper was being held on first-degree murder charges, while Stewart was in jail for capital murder. Officers are also investigating how the two were able to obtain hacksaw blades.