February 3, 2014
Feb. 11, 2013: This photo provided by the Michigan Department of
Corrections shows Michael David Elliot. (AP/MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS)
IONIA, Mich. (AP) — A convicted murderer serving life behind bars in Michigan for four 1993 slayings is at large after he escaped from prison and apparently abducted a woman who fled his grips when he stopped for gas in Indiana, authorities said Monday.
Michael David Elliot, 40, was discovered missing about 9:30 p.m. Sunday from the Ionia Correctional Facility in mid-Michigan, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said in an email.
“It appears that he created a hole at the bottom of the two perimeter fences of the correctional facility and then crawled through those holes,” Marlan said.
Elliot apparently abducted a woman from Ionia using a knife or box cutter and drove to Elkhart, Ind., roughly 100 miles southwest of Ionia near the Indiana-Michigan state line. The woman escaped when they stopped at a gas station, and she called police, Marlan said. He provided no information about the condition or identity of the woman, nor if she had any previous connection to Elliot.