Associated Press
GRAND BEACH, Mich. — A convicted killer who was one of three inmates who escaped from the Indiana State Prison was caught Monday near the vacation home of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley by one of his bodyguards, and authorities warned residents nearby to stay inside.
The guard was holding the inmate, 48-year-old Charles Smith, at gunpoint in a driveway near Daley’s home, when police arrived and took him into custody, said Grand Beach Police Chief Dan Schroeder. The three inmates, two murderers and a rapist, escaped from the prison through the tunnel system underneath the penitentiary, which is eight miles from Daley’s vacation home and 40 miles from Chicago.
Schroeder said police believe convicted killer Mark Booher, 46, of New Castle, Ind. also was spotted in Grand Beach and warned residents to stay inside and lock their doors.
“Until this individual is apprehended, I don’t want them to take any chances,” Schroeder said.
A woman at a home in Grand Beach saw two men in her driveway and called police, Schroeder said. It was unclear how Daley’s security guard became involved, he said, but Smith was taken into custody without incident.
Authorities also are looking for the third inmate, convicted rapist Lance Battreal, 45, of Rockport, Ind.
It was not immediately clear whether Daley was at his house when Smith, of New Castle, Ind., was caught. The Associated Press left a message at the home where Smith was captured in the driveway.
Indiana Department of Correction officials said the men were discovered missing about 10 a.m. Sunday. The three escaped by getting past bars in the tunnels and pipe chases under the grounds of the maximum-security prison in Michigan City, Ind., said Department spokesman Doug Garrison.
Two of the inmates did maintenance work in the prison’s tunnel system as part of supervised work crews. Garrison said he wasn’t sure which two had done the work.
The three men were in the same housing unit but it’s unclear how they knew each other, Garrison said. Prison officials were talking to people who knew the inmates, including people on their visitation or e-mail lists and family and friends.
Smith, Booher and Battreal started serving time in the late 1990s and all faced at least 30 more years behind bars.