Police believe they have found the body of a convicted murderer who escaped from an Ohio jail in the Ohio River near Henderson, Ky., officials said. Bradley Gillespie was reported missing on Tuesday along with another inmate, James Lee, who was capture early Wednesday morning.
The body was found near Gillespie’s last known location and an autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.
A boater on the river spotted the body and alerted police, who said the body appeared to have been in the water for five days.
Gillespie, 50, and Lee, 47, were last seen on prison surveillance cameras Monday morning, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections and State Highway Patrol. Ohio. During an inmate count Tuesday morning at the Allen-Oakwood Correctional Facility in Lima, Ohio, officials realized Lee was missing and later discovered Gillespie was also gone.
Early Wednesday morning, police in Henderson, Kentucky spotted a stolen vehicle the couple allegedly used, according to a statement. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but it accelerated and crashed, police said. The two men then fled on foot and Lee was arrested.
Gillespie had been at the Ohio jail since late 2016, according to the state’s corrections department. Lee was admitted to prison in 2021 after being convicted of multiple crimes including breaking and entering, burglary and safecracking.
Alex Sunby
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