LIMA, Ohio – A teenager convicted of killing three Chardon High School students and a man serving time for the murder of a Madison Township girl have both been recaptured after escaping from a Lima prison, along with a third inmate who is also back in custody.
See timeline below.
State Highway Patrol troopers and a canine unit found T.J. Lane at 1:20 a.m. Friday, hiding by a church about 100 yards away from the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution, from which he had escaped Thursday night, says spokeswoman Joellen Smith of the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and Lt. Craig Cvetan, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.
An unrepentant Lane 19, (right) pleaded guilty last year to shooting three students in February 2012 at Chardon High School, east of Cleveland.
Lane, Lindsey Bruce, 33, and Clifford Opperud, 45, scrambled over a fence and crossed a roof, setting off alarm, hours earlier at the prison about 80 miles south of Toledo, according to Smith and Cvetan.
Bruce was convicted in 2007 of the slaying of five-year-old Emily Rimel, who disappeared from her parents’ Groveport-area apartment in 2004 and whose remains were found in a creek 17 months later.
Opperud was serving time for kidnapping and robbery.
Troopers located Bruce within minutes on the prison grounds with the aid of an Ohio State Highway Patrol canine unit.
Opperud was captured just before 4:30 a.m.was captured with the aid of a helicopter-mounted infrared that detected his heat signature and led a canine unit to him, Smith and Cvetan said.
The three were transferred to a state prison in Youngstown, Smith said.
Smith says Lane had been assigned the highest level security grade typically given to a first-time inmate, as well as a protective custody classification—the same ratings assigned to Cleveland kidnapper/rapist Ariel Castro.
Classes were cancelled Friday in the Chardon school district but some buildings were open and counselors were made available.
Escape timeline
Thursday
7:38 p.m.: Inmates scale fence to cross roof of entry building and fence alarm immediately sounds
7:45 p.m.: Ohio State Highway Patrol and local law enforcement notified of escapes
7:47 p.m.: A staff member sees the three inmates running northbound from the prison and gives chase, apprehending Bruce.
8:37 p.m. Law enforcement security perimeter confirmed completed. Patrol begins bringing additional resources online including the Special Response Team, canine unit, helicopter and aircraft.
Friday
1:20 a.m.: Lane apprehended by the State Patrol’s SRT in a wooded area near the prison; a Patrol canine led officers to the inmate’s location
4:20 a.m.: Opperud apprehended hiding under a boat on a private residence, north of Bluelick Rd. A helicopter-mounted infrared camera tracked a hot spot which led officers to the area and a Patrol canine located the inmate.
10:55 a.m.: All three inmates transferred to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.
–Source: Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitations and Correction and Dept. of Public Safety.