Global Courant 2023-05-29 06:51:24
The nearly week-long search for a killer who escaped from an Ohio jail ended Sunday when authorities confirmed a body floating in a Kentucky river most likely belongs to the killer.
“I believe today we have concluded our five-day manhunt,” Sean McKinney, chief of police in Henderson, Kentucky, said at a news conference.
Earlier Sunday, a boatman reported a body in the Ohio River, which shares Kentucky’s northern border with Indiana and Ohio, McKinney said. After it was recovered, preliminary investigations revealed it was 50-year-old Bradley Gillespie, who was last seen near the banks of the waterway, he said.
An autopsy scheduled for Tuesday will give the final word on the identity of the remains, he said. Gillespie was limping, seen on security video from an Indiana retailer, as he may have been injured during the escape, authorities previously said.
The convict was last seen Monday at the Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio, authorities said. The next morning, he and fellow inmate James Lee, 47, were determined to be missing after a prisoner count, they said.
Bradley Gillespie. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction via AP
Investigators say the two hid in a dumpster during their escape. Henderson is about 350 miles southwest of Lima. Authorities said the pair had also been seen at a Home Depot in nearby Evansville, Indiana, and in the small town of Vincennes, Indiana, where they may have unsuccessfully tried to break into a vehicle.
On Wednesday, police said Gillespie and Lee are believed to have been in an allegedly stolen vehicle that was chased by Henderson officers in the area until it crashed and the suspects fled. Lee was captured nearby, but Gillespie apparently fled and remained at large.
Following the vehicle chase, authorities flooded the Henderson area with dozens of officers, three helicopters, and bloodhounds. But on Sunday, McKinney suggested Gillespie may have drowned days ago and his body was left at the bottom of the river until the weekend.
“The levels or stages of decomposition are consistent with a body that has been in the water for four to five days,” McKinney said.
Gillespie was convicted of two counts of murder and served two consecutive 15-to-life sentences after conviction in 2016, Ohio authorities said. Lee was convicted of burglary and other robbery-related crimes, they said.
Four corrections department employees were placed on paid administrative leave amid internal and Ohio State Highway Patrol investigations into the prison break.
