Trio Escape Indiana State Prison, One Caught

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jul 13, 2009 2:00PM

A trio of prisoners from Indiana State Prison in Michigan City pulled an Andy Dufrene by tunneling their way to freedom this weekend, but one has already been caught - by Mayor Daley's security guard. But first, who are these three men? Chicago Breaking News identifies the three dangerous escapees.

The escaped inmates were identified as Lance Battreal, 45, who was sentenced to 53 years in 1998 on rape, stalking and criminal confinement charges; Charles Smith, 48, sentenced in 1999 to 95 years for murder; and Mark Booher, 46, sentenced in 1999 to 85 years for murder and felony robbery.

Not good. The inmates were discovered to be missing yesterday morning and apparently used underground tunnels as well as "pipe chases" - passages used to bring supplies into the prison - to escape. It's the first such escape in nine years from the prison. According to an AP report, two of the men were spotted near Grand Beach, Michigan early this morning and police received a call from people at Mayor Daley's vacation house, located a scant eight miles from the prison, where one of Daley's security guards was holding Smith at gunpoint.

There's no word yet on the identity of the second inmate who was spotted or any possible whereabouts of the third inmate. John Schrader, a public information officer with the Indiana Department of Corrections, told the press, "We don't have a real strong idea as to where they may have gone. We've been going through some personal effects to figure out where they may have had outside contacts and following up with any of those." Due to the nature of their past crimes, the men are considered extremely dangerous.