HENDERSON, KY (AP) — A convicted murderer who escaped last week from a northwest Ohio jail with another inmate while hiding in a trash can was found dead Sunday after his body was was spotted floating in the Ohio River, Kentucky police said.
The discovery ended a manhunt for missing inmate Bradley Gillespie, 50. Authorities said fellow inmate James Lee, 47, was captured last Wednesday after the two escaped earlier in the week from the Allen/Oakwood Correctional Facility in Lima, Ohio.
Henderson Police Chief Sean McKinney told a news conference authorities received a call on Sunday about a body floating in the river very close to where Gillespie was seen for the last time when his officers captured the other detainee during a chase and traffic stop on a stolen car. Gillespie, a passenger in the vehicle, fled on foot, sparking a days-long manhunt, he said.
“A preliminary investigation indicates that we recovered Bradley Gillespie’s body from the river,” McKinney said, adding that police, fire, coroner’s office and others responded when the tip of a body in the river came. Reports indicate that tattoos and physical inspection helped with prior identification.
McKinney said an autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.
Henderson is a town across the Ohio River from Indiana and about 350 miles southwest of Lima, Ohio, where authorities said the inmates escaped last Monday.
Lee was serving a sentence handed down in 2021 for burglary and safecracking. McKinney said Gillespie had been jailed since 2016 and was convicted of a double homicide.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Friday afternoon that investigators determined the inmates left the correctional facility “after hiding in a dumpster.”
A major and three corrections officers have been placed on paid administrative leave and similar action may be taken against others as the department’s internal investigation continues, officials said. A criminal investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol is also continuing.
Both men were reported missing from Allen Oakwood Correctional Facility in Lima, Ohio on Tuesday, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Lee was discovered missing during a prisoner count at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, prompting an emergency prisoner count which revealed Gillespie was also missing. Authorities later determined the pair were last seen on surveillance video inside the facility just after 8:40 a.m. Monday.