CRAWFORD CO.—On day 4, there is nothing new to report in the case of escaped prisoner Jared Carter, and the public is getting weary of the tension the situation has brought with it.
Carter escaped from a Robinson Correctional Center work crew on Friday morning, August 30, subsequently attacking a DOC employee searching for him as he made it into Robinson, and has eluded authorities ever since.
Authorities have focused their search on a section of town around the park, where a discarded DOC shirt was found, as well as a trailer park in the vicinity.
But it seems that despite house-to-house and outbuilding searches, the authorities are hitting dead end after dead end.
It seems opportune that Carter, who is serving a lengthy sentence out of Bond, Clinton and Madison counties for burglary, theft and forgery (ergo nothing violent), disappeared during the Palestine Rodeo Weekend, when there were plenty of people in the area from out of town. It also seems opportune that he disappeared just a few weeks after filing for divorce from his wife Sheila (CORRECTED from earlier reports) and the latest input we’ve had from those on the ground in Robinson is that he has a girlfriend in the area who has visited him at the facility. There exists the possibility that Carter may have had contact with her on that day (a phone call was made from an unconfirmed location to at least Carter’s sister; however, in the melée, the call made to the sister was incorrectly traced back to Judge Jim Hill’s residence, causing authorities to believe Carter had broken into the Hill home and phoned from there, at least for a short while until it was determined otherwise). Huck’s employees at the Robinson location near Marathon were interviewed by police and videotapes in the store reviewed, as it was believed that at one point Carter was inside that convenience store, ostensibly purchasing items. So where he got the money for such purchases was a point of contention, and illustrated the possibility that he had help at some point along the way.
Other people have been misidentified by the public as being Carter, since his quick description (6 feet tall, bald, goatee, tattoos) fits that of literally hundreds of people in and out of the area. One confirmed incident of a Robinson woman, who claimed yesterday that she was held at knifepoint by a man fitting that description, didn’t pan out as having anything to do with Carter after she was taken to law enforcement and questioned. In an incident that caused quite a stir last night, a Robinson businessman who used to work at the prison, Ty Heckler, had been mistaken by a member of the public for Carter, and authorities were called and surrounded the building that houses his business, Epic Ink Tattoo. That situation created some tense moments and was sorted out when Heckler arrived, and other business owners in the building (including landlords who rented apartments there) were questioned and it was determined that a mistake had been made.
Carter and the person our research staff believes to be his mom, from her Facebook page
Our research team has tracked down relatives of Carter’s and are making attempts to contact them. Whether they will talk, or can shed any light on the situation, remains to be seen. Most of them are in Clinton County, where Disclosure has numerous sources who have assisted over the years. So we’ll see where this goes.
In the meantime, the public has been issuing their input to us since the clarification Saturday that Carter escaped from the work crew (initial reports did NOT make that clear; but then again, immediate initial reports, in the form of alerts from local law enforcement, also had it that Carter was a black male, not a white male, for about 20 minutes, anyway).
Locals have advised that they are very uncomfortable with the prison work crews, who are taken, under light supervision, to areas not far from the prisons, and work on roadside cleanup, mowing and maintenance. They’ve told us that they’ve always been uncomfortable with these, for the very reason as what happened Friday: they’re worried that a motivated inmate will escape the area and create the chaos Carter has thus far…or worse. Signs along U.S. Highway 50 between Lawrence and Richland counties advise motorists to “not pick up hitchhikers.” DOC is very aware that prison breaks do occur…but the road crews, in the opinion of those who have been contacting us for days, are that they are just too dangerous, given the current staffing issues at DOC. They believe these are dangerous for the public, for the prison employees, and even for the prisoners…because after this is all over with, who’s to say DOC won’t alter policy and shoot on sight if someone makes to break, or even just appears to…and is shot dead on the spot, whether they’re breaking or otherwise?
That said, it seems DOC has been somewhat chagrined at their inability to find their inmate. Many have opined to us that the focus has dead-ended at the park in Robinson or adjoining trailer park because that’s where Carter might have been picked up by someone, therefore that’s where the search dogs continue to find the scent, but it doesn’t go anywhere else. If that’s the case, it might stand to reason that the focus could be elsewhere, such as points west, since that’s where most of Carter’s family is from. But there’s been little indication that this is being done…again leading folks to opine that authorities are kind of at a loss over the situation.
DOC has a tendency to be quite secretive in their doings; getting information on personnel, even after they’ve been charged with a crime (we’re referencing material we’ve covered in the past, here, which has not appeared online), is virtually impossible. DOC activities such as the search for an escaped inmate is one of those things also difficult, although many of us in the media have succeeded in getting through to their public information office. Nevertheless, it’s an effort, every time. Not a lot of people know that of the many prisons in Illinois, several are actually private, and are only leased and subsequently run by the state. So of those private prisons, it’s difficult to get through to DOC-contracted employees, as in some cases, FOIA doesn’t apply. So dealing with them—and many of their belligerent, contracted employees–is often a chore…as can be seen here at the site on the many objectionable comments DOC employees post.
In the meantime, be aware of your surroundings, in case Carter is still in the area…and for those reading in the western side of the state, a heads-up to you: if you know where Carter is, please contact local authorities, and allow us to have our minds put at ease here on the eastern side.