Ohio prison escape: search for double-murderer continues, one escapee captured
An intense manhunt was underway near the Kentucky-Ohio border Wednesday for a convicted double-murderer who managed to escape prison earlier this week while his fellow escapee was apprehended.
Bradley Gillespie, 50, was last spotted on surveillance footage at the Allen/Oakwood Correctional Institution (AOCI) in Lima, Ohio around 8:41 a.m. Monday, the Ohio Department of Correction and Rehabilitation said. Prison officials realized Gillespie and another inmate, 47-year-old James Lee, were missing during a routine prisoner count the following day.
Authorities said both men should be considered dangerous and urged residents against approaching either of them. They also offered a $21,000 reward for information leading to their capture.
Early Wednesday morning, Kentucky police announced Lee had been taken into custody after officers attempted to initiate a traffic stop with a stolen vehicle believed to be occupied by the escapees. The driver refused to stop and a brief chase ensued, ending only when the vehicle wrecked along Camaro Drive.
Both occupants inside the vehicle fled on foot, but only Lee was apprehended. He’d been serving time at the Ohio detention center after he was convicted for burglary, breaking and entering and safecracking.
Authorities warned that Gillespie, a convicted-double killer, remained at large.
“We currently have a perimeter set up in the area of Camaro Drive and we are using resources we have to locate Bradley Gillespie,” police said. “We encourage the community to be vigilant, keep their doors locked, and contact 911 if you have any information about his location.”
Gillespie, originally of Defiance, was found guilty of the murder of Hannah Fischer, 21, and her boyfriend Frank Tracy, Jr., 47, in Sept. 2016, according to NBC 24. They were found fatally shot months apart — Fischer was discovered dead inside an apartment in February, while Tracy was gunned down at Rochester Cemetery in March.
