INTRO – The state Department of Public Safety says 43 long-term escapees from the North Carolina prison system have either been captured or confirmed dead. George Olsen has more.
The Department of Public Safety worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the state’s outstanding escape cases. Of the 43 accounted for, 15 are incarcerated out of state while 18 are confirmed deceased though about half of those a death certificate has yet to be issued. The initiative lowers the number of long-term escapees by about 30 percent. The Department of Public Safety also released a list of its 12 most wanted long-term escapees, one which goes back to 1976. Among those are Stanley Rogers, missing since 1996 after a 1994 conviction in Carteret County for Robbery with a dangerous weapon, and Linda Williams, who escaped in 1979 following being sentenced to up to 40 years imprisonment two years earlier in Duplin County for armed robbery. I’m George Olsen.