Escaped suspect in Michigan murder taken back into custody in Montana

Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on July 11, 2023

(NEW YORK) — A suspect in a cold-case murder who escaped while being taken to Michigan to face charges has been found following a massive manhunt in Montana, authorities said.

Fugitive Chadwick Shane Mobley, 42, was arrested and taken back into custody on Monday night after being spotted in Plains, Montana, the Sanders County Sheriff’s Office said.

Mobley is alleged to have absconded from authorities in Montana on Sunday while being taken to Michigan to face charges in the 2011 slaying of a 20-year-old woman, who was found fatally shot in the basement of a relative’s home, according to officials.

Employees of a private transport company contracted by the U.S. Marshals Service were driving Mobley from the Lincoln County Jail in Libby, Montana, to Michigan on Sunday when he managed to slip out of his handcuffs and ankle shackles and bolt from custody around 10 a.m. local time at a gas station in Plains, Montana, according to the Sanders County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s officials had described Mobley as dangerous and warned residents of Plains, a small town of about 1,100 people, to keep the doors of their homes and vehicles locked and to immediately call 911 if they spotted the fugitive.

The sheriff’s office said Mobley was spotted by citizens who “made the call and helped watch.”

Mobley was initially arrested on June 28 in Lincoln County following a nationwide manhunt.

Mobley was one of three murder suspects who escaped from custody in separate incidents over a four-day period, each prompting separate large-scale manhunts in different parts of the country.

Eric Abril, a suspect in a Northern California hostage-taking homicide and shootout with police, escaped just after 3 a.m. Sunday from a medical facility in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, where he was supposed to be under 24-hour surveillance, Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said at a news conference. The 35-year-old fugitive was captured Monday after being spotted in a residential area in Rocklin, California, roughly 6 miles from where he escaped, law enforcement sources told ABC affiliate station KXTV in Sacramento.

Michael Burham, a suspect in homicide and rape cases in Jamestown, New York, escaped from the Warren County, Pennsylvania, Jail late Thursday night, according to the Pennsylvania State Police. He was described by officials as a “self-taught survivalist” with military experience. He remains at large and authorities are focusing their search for him on the Northern Pennsylvania woods.