How two Ohio inmates escaped in trash dumpster

Just like in the movies, an Ohio inmate put stuff under his blankets to make it look like someone was sleeping in his bed and then he made his prison escape, according to an internal investigation released Friday.

Bradley Gillespie and James Lee escaped from Allen Oakwood Correctional

Facility in Lima on May 22, 2023. Prison workers didn’t discover them missing for more than 24 hours.

When the mid-morning count on May 23 came up short, guards found items under blankets in Gillespie’s bed. Under the blankets, they found a note referencing the escape.

Lee and Gillespie snuck out by hiding in a trash dumpster. Security footage at the trash transfer station showed the two men climbing out of the dumpster and running away.

An internal report by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction found two inmates escaped in May 2023 by hiding in a dumpster and disguising a bed to make it look like someone was sleeping in it.

They stole a car and hit the road, heading to Indiana

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on Interstate 69 where another security camera captured footage of them passing through south of Indianapolis. Police in Henderson, Kentucky gave chase, Lee and Gillespie’s stolen car crashed and they took off on foot in the early morning hours of May 24.

Officers caught Lee. Authorities found Gillespie’s body in the Ohio River on May 28.

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction fired a probationary guard and is preparing to take disciplinary action against two other guards and a captain. The prison chief of security, Carl Bendross, returned to duty. Another guard died while on administrative leave.

The internal investigation found that another incarcerated person may have tried to warn prison staff that Lee and Gillespie were planning to escape. And another employee received an anonymous note in February 2023 that said Gillespie had a weapon, rope and several $100 bills.

The investigation found there had been eight other internal reviews of inaccurate counts at the prison between October 2022 and May 2023.