Escapees ‘almost anywhere in America,’ sheriff says of men accused of killing guards

By the time a Ford F-250 was reported stolen Wednesday morning in Morgan County, inmates accused of killing two prison guards were long gone.

As of 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said escapees Ricky Dubose and Donnie Rowe had been gone nearly 36 hours since the truck was taken.

“Obviously, you could be almost anywhere in America,” said Sills, who is leading the investigation into the deaths of Georgia Department of Corrections officers Curtis Billue and Chris Monica.

The Baldwin State Prison inmates were being transferred to another facility when they allegedly broke through a barrier in the transport bus and overpowered the guards and got a gun.

The officers were fatally shot on the bus that was transporting 33 inmates along Ga. 16 between Sparta and Eatonton just before 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Dubose and Rowe hijacked a Honda Civic that was recovered Wednesday afternoon in a wooded area off U.S. 441, not far from a burglary where the men changed out of their prison uniforms.

The dark green car was under a heavy canopy of trees and could not be spotted by air, Sills said.

“It couldn’t be seen at all,” he said. “I had been within 40 yards of that car and I didn’t even see it.”

An officer on foot found the vehicle as authorities intensely searched a one-mile radius from the house.

Tracking dogs were initially on the trail, but it grew cold.

“They walked nearly nine miles and actually walked in the creek bed,” Sills said.

After the 2008 white Ford F-250 was reported stolen, authorities viewed surveillance footage from a nearby store that showed them walking by at about 10 p.m. Tuesday.

About 30-40 minutes later, the camera showed them driving past in the pickup, Sills said.

A news conference is planned at noon in Madison where Sills and state and federal authorities will update the status of the investigation.

A reward for information leading to the arrests of Dubose and Rowe is up to $130,000.

Sills said the fund continues to grow as law enforcement agencies pony up seizure money.

The New York State Corrections Officers Police Benevolent Fund contributed, as did a private business Correct Care that works in the prison system, he said.

In Wednesday’s news conference, Sills warned the public to be extremely careful if they see the armed escapees, or the pickup with Georgia license plate BCX5372, and to call 911 immediately.

The men have ties to northeast Georgia and Tennessee.

“These two men brutally murdered two corrections officers. They have no concern for human life.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2017 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Escapees ‘almost anywhere in America,’ sheriff says of men accused of killing guards."