The mistaken release of a murder suspect from an adult correctional center in Indiana on Friday prompted authorities to begin a desperate manhunt to protect the public from their boneheaded error.
According to reports, the suspect, Kevin Mason, was mistakenly freed from custody due to an inaccurate records review that inmate clerks carried out. According to statements by Colonel James Martin during a news conference, “This was an error, this should not have happened, and Mason should not have been released from our care.”
The state of Minnesota has filed three warrants for Mason’s arrest in connection with the murder of Dontevius Catchings in 2021. Martin speculated that the decision made by Minnesota to revoke extradition on one of the warrants may have inadvertently led to the apparent bureaucratic error.
According to reports, the incident led to the termination of two clerks.
Martin explained the delay in the police department’s communication with the general public regarding the manhunt for the suspect. They said it was a deliberate tactical decision. Not having it blow up in the media and keeping things calm would prevent the escapee from going underground and running further away.
But officials assured that the search for Mason was being conducted 24/7.
The frustration of Catchings’ sister was voiced when she stated that she has been waiting for justice for 27 months and that she and her family now feel like they are beginning over again.
Jailbreak research has not been extensively studied. But one released in 2016 looked at over 500 jail escapes in 2009 and found that over 92% of the fugitives were eventually apprehended.
Frank Morris and two brothers, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin, escaped from the island prison, Alcatraz, on makeshift inflatable rafts in 1962 and were never found.
