ADRIAN, Mich. – A convicted murderer and another inmate escaped from prison Friday by hiding in the back of a garbage truck, but they were quickly arrested, a state corrections spokesman said.
Lyle Harvey Curtis, 37, and William Dean Michels, 47, left the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in a garbage truck but were captured less than an hour later, said Russ Marlan, the prison's spokesman.
Curtis broke his leg when the two men jumped from the back of the truck at a nearby landfill, but the two kept going, Marlan said.
He said the prisoners abducted a man shoveling his driveway and forced him to drive them to a strip mall, but neighbors who witnessed the abduction called authorities. The men were arrested when they arrived at the strip mall, he said.
Curtis is serving a 40 to 70 years for second-degree murder, Marlan said. Michels is serving 34 to 60 years for rape, he said. There was no immediate word on additional escape or abduction charges.
Last month in South Carolina, two inmates escaped from a maximum security prison in a garbage truck. The two, a convicted kidnapper and a convicted murderer, were captured at a motel two days later.
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