Tennessee officials were searching for two men Sunday who they say escaped from prison last week and then abducted a man and stole his truck.
A man named Robert Lee Brown and Christopher Austin escaped a minimal security connection Friday morning at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Ten Lake County, officials said. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Said Men should be considered armed and dangerous.
According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, Mr. Brown, 36, was serving a 18-year sentence for aggravated rape, and Mr. Austin, 34, was serving an eight-year sentence for theft, reckless assault and theft, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.
After they escaped, at 9 a.m. Friday, the men abducted a man from a boat ramp on the Mississippi River, the sheriff’s office in Henry County, Tenn., Said on Facebook. The sheriff’s office said the man was working for the highway department in Fulton County, Queens.
That afternoon, the employee found a truck issued by his department north of Paris, Tennessee, where he had been abandoned by fugitives, officials said.
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that “from the victim’s statement, which was blindfolded, it was believed that another vehicle had fled to an unknown location.”
Early Saturday morning, Henry County deputies detained another man at his home in Paris. His truck, a red 2009 Chevrolet Silverdo shop with an extended cab, was stolen, the sheriff’s office said. The fugitives tied up his man and stole his truck around 10:30 a.m. Friday, officials said.
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office fee asked citizens to “investigate their friends and relatives and keep an eye out for suspicious activity.”
Prison officials declined to say how the men escaped. Officers found they went around 8:30 a.m. local time, after an emergency inmate count, the Tennessee Correctional Department said in a statement.
