OPELOUSAS, La. — Authorities are intensifying their search for 24-year-old Keith Eli, the last of three inmates who escaped from a Louisiana jail after exploiting a deteriorating wall. The manhunt is in full swing three days following the jailbreak, which has left local officials and residents on edge.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz stated, We would prefer that he surrender himself peaceably, but we will not rest until he is captured. Eli had been jailed on a charge of second-degree murder.
One of the escapees, Johnathan Jevon Joseph, was captured Friday after a brief chase initiated when detectives compounded a tip about his location. Previously incarcerated on multiple charges including rape, Joseph surrendered after being cornered in a storage shed.
Meanwhile, the third escapee, 26-year-old Joseph Allen Harrington, tragically took his own life with a hunting rifle when confronted by police at a home. Harrington faced several felony charges, including home invasion.
In May, Louisiana experienced another audacious jailbreak, when ten inmates escaped from a New Orleans jail. They crawled through a hole behind a toilet and left a message reading, To Easy LoL. It took authorities five months to recapture all ten inmates.
Sheriff Guidroz has mentioned that the inmates managed to escape after uncovering a degrading section of an upper wall. Through considerable effort, they removed sufficient concrete blocks to make their way through, leading to their eventual descent onto a first-floor roof, and then to the ground.
The circumstances of this jail break have prompted an internal investigation to address the lapse in jail security.
