COLUMBUS – Authorities were still looking Monday morning for two men who climbed a fence and escaped from a Union County jail Saturday afternoon.
Joshua Hammond (above left) and Cody Ray (above right) ran through an open door and climbed a 12-foot fence on the east side of the West Central Community Correctional Facility, 18200 State Route 4 in Marysville, and were last seen running into a cornfield north of the jail at 2:43 p.m., Union County Sheriff Jamie Patton said.
Anyone who sees Hammond or Ray should not approach them and should call 911 or the Union County Sheriff’s Office at 937-645-4110.
Hammond, 28, is described as 6’ tall/140 lbs. with brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a blue shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes.
Ray, 27, is 5’11”/160 lbs. with brown hair and hazel eyes and was last seen wearing a green shirt, blue jeans, and tennis shoes.
Hammond, of Columbus, was sent to the jail in August for a probation violation out of an original felony charge of possession of drugs and Ray, of West Mansfield, has been at the facility since September as a result of a probation violation for an original charge of grand theft, also a felony, Patton said.
Patton says his office responded to the facility within two minutes of a call reporting the jailbreak and began an immediate search with assistance from units of the Marysville Division of Police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol as well as a K-9 from the Plain City Police Department and a helicopter from the Columbus Division of Police.
The area surrounding the facility was searched from the air and on the ground, but Patton says the men have not been located.