A prisoner in Wyoming who authorities said escaped from jail with the help of a prison guard was captured in Georgia along with the female guard.
Officials said that fugitive Richard Fountaine, 29, and Kimberly Belcher, 25, were spotted in Monroe County on Jan. 9, triggering a search in the area. The pair were found in a garage in Monroe County on Jan. 9 by a homeowner.
“The male stuck his head out first and I noticed he was just kind of tattooed all the way up and he was brandishing a weapon. And their eyes just looked kind of crazy,” Natalie Sundeen told NBC.
Sundeen spoke with the pair for a minute before they asked her for help.
“They say that they had gotten their car stuck in a creek in our property or close to our property and could I help them get it out,” Sundeen said. “I said, ‘There’s people painting the house in the back, if you want to talk to them feel free, they have trucks.’”
Authorities heard about what happened and rushed to the scene, informing Sundeen who it was that she’d encountered.
A day later, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said in an update that Fountaine and Belcher had been captured.
The office had warned people not to approach the fugitive and the former prison guard, saying “They may be armed and are considered dangerous.” If anyone saw the pair they were urged to call the sheriff immediately.
Escape
According to court documents, Fountaine broke out of prison with the help of Belcher, a guard at the facility.
Fountaine climbed a wall at Casper Re-Entry Center and then scaled a chain-link fence on Dec. 28, 2018, before hopping into a waiting SUV and fleeing the area, according to the documents, which were obtained by the Casper Star-Tribune.
Law enforcement officials stated in the documents that Belcher gave Fountaine a cellphone before he escaped, which he apparently used to arrange a ride.
A search warrant request for the facility does not state why Belcher is believed to have helped the inmate. According to the Star-Tribune, other workers at the facility have allegedly been caught in recent years having sexual encounters with inmates.
Mark Horan, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Corrections, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the Casper Re-Entry Center is under private ownership.
He noted that Fountaine was in a secure unit there when he escaped.
***UPDATE***Both individuals were located and are in police custody!Please be on the look-out for the following…
Caught in Georgia
It’s not clear why the couple fled to Georgia; the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said that it had “no information to suggest that they have family here,” and that Fountaine was from Texas.
Lt. Chad Beck with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the call from a homeowner approached by the pair eventually led authorities to them.
After nearly two days of searching Monroe County, with multiple agencies and a helicopter assisting in the search, they were finally found dressed in full camouflage, by a pond, face down on the bank of a dam, Beck told NBC. They had placed their hands underneath their bodies in the hopes of avoiding detection.
When detected, they surrendered without a struggle.
