A homicide suspect who used bed sheets to escape from a north-western Pennsylvania jail is probably still in the area and someone may be helping him to evade capture, police said after discovering possible campsites in nearby woods.
Michael Burham, 34, fled the Warren county prison late last Thursday by climbing on exercise equipment, climbing through a window and down a rope fashioned from jail bedding, authorities said. Burham was being held on $1m bail and was charged with kidnapping, burglary and other counts.
“We have located small stockpiles or campsites in wooded areas in the general vicinity of Warren, and we believe that at least some of those may be associated with Burham,” Lt Col George Bivens of the Pennsylvania state police told reporters.
Bivens said on Monday that the stockpiles consisted of “supplies that would assist him with a prolonged stay in a wooded area”. He declined to be more specific but said investigators suspect someone is helping Burham.
“We do believe he is getting some assistance, from where or what that type of assistance is, I’m not prepared to comment on,” Bivens said.
District attorney Jason Schmidt of Chautauqua county, New York, said last month that Burham is the prime suspect in the 11 May killing of Kala Hodgkin, 34, and a related arson in Jamestown, New York. Authorities also accuse him of abducting an elderly couple in Pennsylvania while trying to evade capture before his arrest in South Carolina. Warren city police said Burham “is considered very dangerous”.
Local, multi-state and federal authorities have searched numerous residences, abandoned structures and wooded areas using dog units, drones and aircraft, authorities said.
Bivens told local WGRZ-TV that Burham taught himself survival skills and had military reserve training.
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