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Escaped Inmate From Lancaster May Have Been Spotted In Hocking County
By: Associated Press
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Authorities are continuing their search for an inmate who apparently escaped from a jail facility in Fairfield County after putting socks on his hands to protect himself as he climbed a barbed wire fence.
Hocking County Sheriff Lanny North says a man fitting the suspect's description knocked on a resident's door Monday night and asked to use the phone, but was turned away.
The Fairfield County Sheriff's office says prisoner Jeremiah Searles was discovered missing shortly before midnight Monday after a headcount at the jail in Lancaster.
The 31-year-old Searles was being held on a Missouri warrant for deviant sexual assault and local charges including obstruction, falsification, criminal trespass and possession of narcotics.
The sheriff says he's looking into whether a felony sex offender belonged at the minimum-security site and he's reviewing whether neighbors were properly notified.