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Convicted Murderer Escapes Prison, Abducts Woman

Cassie Paton |
February 3, 2014 | 11:56 a.m. PST

Staff Reporter

Elliot is still missing. (TwitPic/@ChoneEasy
Elliot is still missing. (TwitPic/@ChoneEasy
A man convicted of four murders is missing from a Michigan prison and is believed to have kidnapped a woman, police say.

According to CNN, Michael David Elliot, 40, was serving five life sentences at Ionia Correctional Facility for the murders, which he committed in 1993. Authorities say Elliot escaped by slipping under a fence and later abducted the woman in the nearby town of Ionia, MI. It was discovered that he was missing around 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

Elliot carjacked the woman's 2004 Jeep Liberty and instructed her to get as far away from Michigan as possible, the report said. They drove 100 miles to Elkhart, IN. and stopped at a gas station, where the woman locked herself in a bathroom and called the police. Local authorities reached her at 11:50 p.m. Elliot fleed the scene in the woman's car.

In a news conference Monday morning, Michigan Dept. of Corrections Director Dan Heyns said Elliot escaped through a sally port, a typically secure garage where prisoners are transported. A former employee of the correctional facility said prisoner checks were routinely conducted at 1 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., leaving an eight-hour gap during which Elliot could have escaped.

“I will be demanding a very thorough investigation," Heyns said, according to CNN affiliate WOOD. "It’s obvious that there were some flaws in our security, and that we need to ask what those are. We’ve already made a number of corrections just over the evening hours."

Authorities said Elliot was last seen getting on Interstate 80/90. An update on the story reports the Jeep Liberty was found about 20 miles east of Elkhart in LaGrange County, IN. The vehicle was abandoned, and Elliot is still missing.

Read more at CNN.

 

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