The escape of the two prisoners from the Daviess-DeKalb Regional Jail has prompted Daviess County Sheriff Kevin Heldenbrand and DeKalb County Sheriff Wes Raines and Jail Administrator Larry Hadley to make some changes to the jail at Pattonsburg.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
Bids are being taken for a fence with razor wire to encompass the entire jail. The annex building will be redone to put in expanding metalwork behind the sheet rock.
According to Sheriff Helden- brand, the prisoners escaped around 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25, by removing the inside metal siding and sheet rock under a bunk and then working through the outside metal. Inmates were being housed inside the “annex” of the prison, which is a metal-sided building, not the main jail with concrete walls.
There are about 225 prisoners in the main building. The annex building holds about 76 prisoners. The annex was originally used to house only women. But the number of women prisoners decreased, so women began being housed in the main building, segregated from the men in one pod of about 60. The men began being housed in the annex because there was more room.
That may change, according to Sheriff Heldenbrand, who said they were proposing switching back to only females in the annex building.
The escapees were on the lam about 90 minutes. They are the third and fourth prisoners to escape from the jail in less than a year. Abdul Jackson escaped on May 25, 2007, and was captured on May 30. Mr. Jackson had been in the recreation yard outside the jail for a smoke break when he scaled a concrete wall and got into a waiting vehicle. John M. Rupp escaped on July 23, 2007, and was captured on July 24. He escaped by tunneling under the fence where the ground was soft from recent rains.
The latest escapees, Jeffrey Renfro, 22, Kansas City, and John Eskridge, 19, Gallatin, were believed to have stolen a truck from K.J.’s Two Stop in Pattonsburg and a car from DeKalb County. The Missouri State Highway Patrol spotted both vehicles on Hwy. 6 near Altamont, at around 10:23 p.m. The men turned south on Route J, abandoned the cars and took off on foot. They went east about two miles. Officers found them hiding in a creek bed at around 11 p.m.
Jeffrey Renfro, 22, Kansas City, was charged with the following felonies: escape from confinement, stealing a motor vehicle, tampering with a motor vehicle, and resisting arrest. His bond was set at $85,000.
John Eskridge, 19, Gallatin, was charged with the following felonies: escape from confinement, stealing a motor vehicle, tampering with a motor vehicle, and resisting arrest. His bond was set at $85,000.
Renfro was originally in jail for burglary and Eskridge for writing bad checks.