A man convicted in four murders has escaped
from a Michigan prison and briefly held a woman hostage, officials told Skynews
reports.
Michael David Elliot was discovered missing on
Sunday night at around 9.30pm local time from the Ionia Correctional Facility
in central Michigan.
“It appears he created a hole at the bottom of
the two perimeter fences of the correctional facility and then crawled through
those holes,” according to Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ
Marlan.
Department Director Dan Heyns said Elliot was
dressed in a white kitchen uniform, which might have helped him blend in with
snow and evade security.
Once outside the prison, Elliot abducted a woman
in Ionia using a knife or box cutter and drove her Jeep to a gas station in
northern Indiana, roughly 100 miles southwest of Ionia.
The LaGrange County Sheriff’s Department said the
woman was able to call 911 from a concealed mobile phone while he was pumping
gas at the store near Middlebury in Elkhart County.
The woman ran to a restroom where she locked
herself inside.
Elliot knocked on the door, but she stayed inside
until police officers arrived. She was not harmed.
A nationwide alert was issued as law enforcement
continued their search for Elliot.
“We believe that he is no longer in the state of
Michigan, however citizens in the region should remain vigilant,” Mr Heyns
said.
The woman told police officers he said he wanted
to get as far from the prison as possible.
Elliot was serving life behind bars for fatally
shooting four people and burning down their house in 1993. Police said Elliot
and his accomplices were trying to steal money from a drug dealer.
One of Elliot’s co-defendants testified against
him, saying he laughed about shooting the victims in the head.
Marlan urged citizens to call 911 if they see
anything suspicious or become aware of Elliot’s whereabouts.
Michigan State Police said the vehicle Elliot
stole from the woman whom he abducted was a 2004 red four-door Jeep Liberty
with a Michigan licence plate 5FTG55.
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