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 them once accused of plotting to kidnap David Letterman’s son.
Police Tuesday morning were piecing together evidence: a report that a man believed to be one of the inmates stole ammunition in Clancy, 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 on 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. But, 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.
Employees at a store in Clancy, near Helena, told authorities 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 that this individual was, in fact, William Willcutt,” the release said. “It has not been 100 percent confirmed that Willcutt was in the Clancy area; however, deputies have been combing the area for signs or other sightings.”
Willcutt is familiar with the Clancy area from several burglaries he committed there in 2005, the release said.
Willcutt fled a prison ranch in a truck with Kelly A. Frank, 45, arrested in 2005 on allegations 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 kidnap 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.
Willcutt, who had a parole hearing 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.
A state lawmaker who oversees Department of Corrections issues said the prison may need to re-evaluate the screening used to determine whether inmates are suited for work outside the prison walls.
“It really gives everyone a black eye when one or two of those inmates takes advantage of being outside of the perimeter,” said Sen. Steve Gallus, D-Butte.
The last convict to successfully elude police following an escape was convicted murderer Philip Sadowski, who fled in 1996 by using a pickup truck assigned to a prison logging crew. He remains at large.