Suspected killer loose after escaping from jail using rope made from bedsheets

08 July 2023 , 13:48

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A massive manhunt has been launched to track down Burham (Image: Warren County Jail)

A suspected killer is on the loose after escaping from prison using a rope made from bedsheets.

Authorities are frantically searching for Michael Burham who is described by police as "very dangerous."

He escaped a jail in northwestern Pennsylvania, US, where he was being held on arson and burglary charges. He is a suspect in homicide and rape cases in Jamestown, New York

Burham escaped from the Warren County Jail sometime late Thursday night or early Friday morning, Warren County spokesperson Cecile Stelter said.

He busted out from the recreation yard by "elevating himself" on top of exercise equipment and getting through a metal-grated roof.

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Wanted poster for Burham (Warren County Jail)

Warren Police Captain Jeffery Dougherty told reporters that there is "no particular search radius."

"We do not know where he is at," he added during a press briefing Friday evening.

Ms Stelter said: "He is considered dangerous by his past actions and the public is asked not to approach him, but if they see anything unusual to call 911."

Burham was last seen wearing a blue denim coat from the jail, white and orange pants, and orange shoes, Warren police said Friday.

He was also associated with a prior carjacking and kidnapping of a local couple, police said.

"He is considered very dangerous, and the public is asked to be vigilant and report anything out of the ordinary," police said in a Facebook post.

Officials say he escaped by climbing on exercise equipment and using bed sheets tied together.

Two decades ago on the opposite side of the commonwealth, an inmate being held on murder charges after bodies were unearthed on his Wilkes-Barre property took advantage of a botched repair job and used a rope fashioned from bed sheets to shimmy down from a seventh-floor cell in the Luzerne County prison.

Officials said a window repaired after a 1989 escape attempt had two panes that were too small and secured only with caulking, so they were easily broken out.

Hugo Selenski spent three days on the lam after the October 2003 escape before turning himself in. Another inmate was injured in a fall during the escape attempt and was recaptured.

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Selenski beat two murder charges in a 2006 trial but was convicted of two murders in 2015 and was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Charlie Jones