Associated Press
| Guard Sanford allegedly helped inmate McDaniel escape trom a Tennessee prison. |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A Tennessee fugitive was arrested at a Texas motel Friday along with the female corrections officer accused of giving him a uniform and helping him slip away from a prison hospital six days earlier.
After a search that had extended as far as Arizona, Edward McDaniel and Vicki Sanford surrendered quietly to federal officers and police before dawn at a Days Inn in El Paso, said Jennifer Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
McDaniel, 37, allegedly escaped Saturday by walking out during a shift change at the maximum-security DeBerry Special Needs facility in Nashville, where he was serving a 20-year sentence for the 1996 shooting of a sheriff’s deputy.
Authorities believe he drove away with Sanford, 51, a former truck driver who had worked sporadically at the prison for about two years.
Their arrest came after McDaniel was spotted near the motel and Sanford’s vehicle was found in the parking lot, said Deputy Danny Shelton of the U.S. Marshals Service in El Paso.
The pair had been at the Days Inn since Wednesday and had checked in with fake identities, motel employee Maria Dominguez said.
Police did not immediately release information on charges against them.
Sanford’s son-in-law Michael Moize, 28, who is also a corrections officer at the prison, was arrested Monday on charges of aiding the breakout.
Her son, James Craig, had pleaded Monday for his mother to contact authorities, saying the situation was “destroying this family.”
Pair’s relationship uncertain
Authorities said they did not know the nature of the inmate’s relationship with Sanford, who had been married 24 years, and would not disclose why McDaniel was in the special-needs facility, which caters to prisoners who need medical care or mental health treatment.
McDaniel had last been seen Saturday evening when a corrections officer brought him medicine.
corrections officers discovered him missing about 12 hours later during a routine check. His prison-issued clothes had been placed in his bed, apparently to make it look like he was sleeping.
Sanford did not show up for work Sunday after completing her shift Saturday evening. That day, she withdrew $2,000 from her bank account.
Tips and known contacts had led officers searching for McDaniel and Sanford to Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Arizona, and the Tennessee police called McDaniel “extremely dangerous.”
McDaniel was convicted of attempted murder after an officer was shot five times during a traffic stop.
Sanford has no known criminal record.