An escaped homicide suspect who used bed sheets to break out of jail was discovered and recaptured after a couple in northwestern Pennsylvania went to see what had upset their dog.
The couple reportedly took their golf cart to the rear of their property where the dog was barking continuously Saturday, discovering 34-year-old Michael Burham, who had escaped the Warren County jail nine days earlier.
The man recognized Burham during their brief conversation, even though he lied and said he was out camping, according to Lt. Col. George Bivens, of the Pennsylvania State Police.
“The owner of the property recognized him, got his wife back into the golf cart (they were using) and drove away from there so he could immediately contact us as Burham fled into the woods,” Bivens said Saturday night.
The incident occurred in an area which had been a main focus of their search efforts.
“That’s been our strategy all along, is to push him hard, to have him make a mistake — he finally did,” Bivens added.
After scurrying back into the woods, Burham was apprehended at gunpoint almost two hours later, when he accidentally ran into troopers who had set up a perimeter on the surrounding roads.
Bivens said he appeared “tired and worn-out, as we thought he might,” wearing the same pair of prison-issued pants turned inside out, and looking wet and dirty from his days on the run.
Burham escaped late at night on July 6 by climbing on exercise equipment in the jail and exiting through a window before scaling down a rope made from prison bed sheets.
He’d been charged with kidnapping, burglary and other counts, and had been in jail on $1 million bail.
After arraignment, authorities say he will be taken to a different prison as an investigation continues to try to find just how Burham escaped from Warren County.