CRAWFORD COUNTY : Inmate escapes for a day, all but toe hidden in clothes pile
Posted on Friday, June 27, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/229809/
VAN BUREN — A toe sticking out of a pile of laundry spelled the end of freedom for an escaped Crawford County inmate.
Sheriff Mike Allen said he and other officers were searching a house in the 600 block of 13 th Street about 3 p. m. Wednesday when he spotted Luis Camacho Mendoza’s toe protruding from a large pile of clothes in a bedroom.
Mendoza, 26, gave up without a struggle, Allen said.
Mendoza had been jailed since early January on charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Allen said he will be charged with escape.
Jail administrator Capt. Jeff Marvin said Mendoza loosened six screws on the access panel of a fire door in an exercise yard.
Mendoza told a guard Thursday that he had worked on the door for weeks, loosening and retightening the screws until he was ready to escape.
When the six screws were removed, the door’s locking mechanism fell out with the access panel, allowing Mendoza to escape about 3 p. m. Tuesday, Allen said.
Officers developed several leads after tracing calls made from the phone in Mendoza’s cell, Allen said. One person interviewed said that Mendoza was at the 13 th Street house.
An investigation is under way to determine how Mendoza got the special screwdriver needed to loosen the screws on the access panel, Marvin said.
The panel is being welded to prevent future escapes, Marvin said.