The Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. — Authorities have given up their ground search in the Deer Lodge area for a pair of escaped convicts, one of whom was once accused of plotting to kidnap talk show host David Letterman’s son.
Police on Tuesday morning were piecing together evidence: a report that a man believed to be one of the inmates stole ammunition from a store, and other reports that had the convicts seen in Powell, Lake and Broadwater counties.
“We are confident that they are not in the (prison) area, and we are now focusing on other leads and continuing to develop intelligence from our investigation,” Warden Mike Mahoney said in a release.
After the escapes Friday, Montana State Prison officials conducted an exhaustive search in mountains around the prison for four days and were aided by a Department of Homeland Security helicopter. Except for a clue that someone may have stashed weapons and provisions for the two, the searchers came up empty-handed. “The ground search in the Deer Lodge Valley for the two escapees has been completed,” Mahoney said.
Prison officials said it appears the two convicts have eluded capture longer than any other escapees in a decade.
Employees at a store in Clancy, near Helena, reported that a man they believed to be William J. Willcutt, 22, stole three knives, a box of .38 caliber ammunition and food from the business at about noon Sunday, authorities said.
Law enforcement officials have determined there is a “good possibility” the thief was Willcutt, who is familiar with the Clancy area from several burglaries he committed there in 2005.
Willcutt fled a prison ranch in a truck with Kelly A. Frank, 45, who was arrested in 2005 on allegations that he crafted a plan to kidnap Letterman’s son and the boy’s nanny for a $5 million ransom.
Frank was never convicted of a kidnapping scheme but under a plea agreement was convicted of other crimes, which included overcharging Letterman for painting at the celebrity’s ranch.
Letterman’s production company has not commented on the prison break or said whether the incident would deter the television personality from visiting his 2,700-acre Montana ranch near Choteau.
Teton County officials are not commenting on whether they have increased policing around Letterman’s ranch.
A prison spokeswoman said “it would be speculation” to say there was any threat to Letterman’s Montana ranch. But all escapees are considered dangerous while on the loose, said Dana Eldredge.
She said authorities still don’t know if the prison break was planned or a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Willcutt, who was denied parole earlier this year, lived in a prison work dormitory. Frank, who would have been eligible for parole in three months, lived within the prison. Both had been assigned to a working ranch run by the prison to rehabilitate convicts.
Both face additional prison sentences of up to 10 years for escaping, Eldredge said.
The last convict to successfully hide from police after an escape was convicted murderer Philip Sadowski, who fled in 1996 by using a pickup truck assigned to a prison logging crew. He has not been found.