Across the country this year, fugitives on the run turned quiet neighborhoods, rural towns and college campuses into crime scenes. Five major manhunts, each chaotic in its own way, sent police scrambling, triggered lockdowns and highlighted how quickly suspects can disappear.
Ten inmates, including several accused of murder, escaped through a hole behind a toilet at Orleans Justice Center in the early morning hours of May 16, triggering a monthslong, multi-agency manhunt across Louisiana and beyond.
The inmates taunted authorities on their way out, leaving handwritten messages on the cell wall, including one that read, “To easy LOL.”
NEW ORLEANS OFFICIALS GRILLED OVER ‘COORDINATED’ 10-INMATE JAILBREAK
Jail staff did not realize the inmates were missing until about 8:30 a.m., hours after the escape, officials later acknowledged during a City Council meeting.
The breakout exposed deep security failures inside the aging jail, from staffing shortages to long-ignored maintenance issues. An employee of the New Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office was charged with allegedly aiding the escape by turning off water in the cell, while two suspected accomplices were also arrested in connection with allegedly helping the inmates.
“First of all, that jail had been deemed a train wreck in terms of just basic jail operations,” former federal prison Warden Cameron Lindsay previously told Fox News Digital.
“It would appear that basic security inspections were not taking place. Inmates should never be able to tear a toilet off a wall and go straight to the perimeter fence. I just can’t believe that.”
By October, all 10 escapees had been captured, but the incident triggered intense scrutiny of jail oversight and leadership.
Former police chief and convicted killer Grant Hardin, 56, slipped out of the Calico Rock prison on May 25 by disguising himself as a corrections officer — a breach made possible when a guard mistook him for staff.
Nicknamed the “Devil in the Ozarks,” Hardin escaped through a sally port wearing a makeshift Arkansas Department of Correction-style uniform, prison officials said, noting it was not an official uniform.
NOTORIOUS ‘DEVIL IN THE OZARKS’ FINALLY CAUGHT AFTER WEEKS-LONG MANHUNT THAT DREW MULTIPLE AGENCIES
The former police chief pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a man inside the victim’s work truck in 2017. After submitting DNA samples when he was booked for the murder case, his DNA was linked to the 1997 cold-case rape of a teacher. He pleaded guilty in that case in 2019, according to KNWA.
“This guy is just so evil. I mean, this guy is a sociopath,” survivalist Shawn Hendrix previously told Fox News Digital. “[Hardin] has no care for humans or anybody but himself. He’s law-enforcement trained. He has a history of issues in and out of the police. I think there’s a whole bigger story of how this guy was a cop for 27 years, right? … I would not want to be out looking for this guy.”
The escape sparked a massive manhunt across the rugged Ozark terrain involving state police, the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI. Hardin was captured on June 6, nearly two weeks later, less than two miles from the prison.
“Thanks to the great work of local, state and federal law enforcement, Arkansans can breathe a sigh of relief and I can confirm that violent criminal Grant Hardin is back in custody,” Gov. Sarah Sanders said following his capture. “I am grateful for all law enforcement who contributed to his capture and give special thanks to the Trump administration and Secretary Kristi Noem, who sent a team from Border Patrol that was instrumental in tracking and apprehending Hardin.”
After murdering his three daughters, Travis Caleb Decker vanished into rural Washington state, setting off one of the largest manhunts Chelan County has ever seen.
Investigators began searching for Decker in late May after he failed to return his daughters, Paityn, 9; Evelyn, 8; and Olivia, 5, to their mother following a scheduled visitation. The children’s bodies were later found near Rock Island Campground along Icicle Creek with bags over their heads. Autopsies determined the girls died from suffocation.
An Army veteran with extensive survival training, Decker managed to evade capture as teams from multiple counties and federal agencies combed vast stretches of wilderness.
His remains were eventually discovered in September, bringing the manhunt to a close.
“To Whitney, we apologize it’s taken this long to get the closure we were looking for in this case,” Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said in a news conference, referring to Decker’s ex-wife and the mother of the three slain girls. “But I hope you can rest easier at night knowing Travis is accounted for. He is deceased, our DNA results confirmed that and this will bring a close to our case.”
A deadly mass shooting at The Owl Bar in Anaconda left four people dead on Aug. 1, prompting a weeklong, multi-agency manhunt through rugged terrain after the suspected gunman fled the scene.
Authorities identified 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown, a former U.S. Army soldier, as the suspect in the fatal quadruple homicide and said he was tracked for days before being taken into custody about five-and-a-half miles from the crime scene, near a barn west of Anaconda.
During the search, officials warned Brown was armed and extremely dangerous as law enforcement expanded operations across steep, heavily wooded areas.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte praised the coordinated response of local, state and federal authorities at a news briefing, saying officers “didn’t waste a second” in the effort to locate the suspect. Attorney General Austin Knudsen said approximately 130 personnel assisted in the manhunt and credited community tips with helping lead investigators to Brown.
The victims were identified as Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59; Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74, all residents of Anaconda.
Investigators said Brown initially fled the bar on foot and was later believed to be using a stolen vehicle, allowing him to evade capture for several days before his arrest.
Some residents told Fox News Digital they had previously described Brown as volatile, with individuals saying they warned neighbors he might “snap” before the shooting.
A deadly classroom attack inside Brown University’s Barus and Holley engineering building killed two students and wounded nine others during a finals-week review session on Dec. 13, triggering a massive multi-agency manhunt.
LAW ENFORCEMENT EXPERT WARNS EARLY DETAILS ‘OFTEN CHANGE’ AS MANHUNT INTENSIFIES AT BROWN UNIVERSITY
The victims were identified as Ella Cook, a vice president of the College Republicans from Birmingham, Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an aspiring neurosurgeon from Virginia.
Authorities later identified 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, a Portuguese national, as the suspected gunman. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, during the search. Investigators believe he was also responsible for the fatal shooting of an MIT professor days later.
The manhunt and its aftermath left campuses nationwide reexamining safety measures, as investigators worked to retrace Neves-Valente’s movements using surveillance video, public tips and physical evidence.
Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca, Bonny Chu, Andrea Margolis, Stephen Sorace, Michael Ruiz, Julia Bonavita and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
