News
Escaped Fairfield County Inmate Captured
< < Back to escaped-fairfield-county-inmate-capturedAuthorities have captured an inmate who apparently escaped from a southeast Ohio jail facility by using socks to protect his hands as he climbed a barbed wire fence.
The Fairfield County Sheriff's Office says Jeremiah Searles and two other individuals were taken into custody Wednesday evening in Fayette County by deputies acting on a tip.
Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen says charges are pending in the case.
The 31-year-old Searles, discovered missing from a Fairfield County jail facility shortly before midnight Monday, was being held on a Missouri warrant for deviant sexual assault and local charges including obstruction, falsification, criminal trespass and narcotics possession.
The sheriff is looking into whether a felony sex offender belonged at the minimum-security jail site and reviewing whether neighbors were properly notified.