An escaped homicide suspect who used sheets to escape from prison has been discovered and recaptured after a couple in northwestern Pennsylvania went to see what had upset their dog.
The couple reportedly took their golf cart to the back of their property where the dog barked continuously on Saturday, discovering Michael Burham, 34, who had escaped from Warren County Jail nine days earlier.
The man recognized Burham during their brief conversation, although he lied and said he was camping, according to Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens.
“The property owner recognized him, put his wife back in the golf cart (which they were using) and drove from there so he could contact us immediately as Burham fled into the woods,” Bivens said Saturday night.
The incident occurred in an area that had been the focus of their search efforts.
“That’s been our strategy from the start, is to push him hard, make him make a mistake – he finally did it,” Bivens added.
After rushing into the woods, Burham was apprehended at gunpoint nearly two hours later when he accidentally encountered soldiers who had set up a perimeter on the surrounding roads.
Bivens said he looked “tired and exhausted, just like we thought”, wearing the same inside-out jail pants and looking wet and dirty from his days on the run.
Burham escaped late on the night of July 6 by climbing onto exercise equipment in the prison and exiting through a window before descending a rope made from prison bed sheets.
He had been charged with kidnapping, burglary and other charges, and was jailed on $1 million bail.
After the arraignment, authorities say he will be taken to another jail as an investigation continues to try to find out how Burham escaped from Warren County.
With dispatch services