Escaped murderer captured in Spokane area

Authorities hunting for a convicted murderer who broke out of a Florence private prison a month ago had information pointing them to Mexico, Alaska and Washington.

And on Tuesday, the information paid off when federal marshals found Roy Townsend, 37, hiding in bushes behind a motel in the Spokane, Wash., area, said Florence police detective Walt Hunter.

Townsend and Kollin Folsom, 24, also a convicted murderer, had escaped from the Florence Correctional Center about 1 a.m. Sept. 17 after they overpowered a correctional officer, went to the roof and used a ladder to climb over the perimeter fence.

Folsom was captured that morning when a deputy saw him pop out of the brush southeast of Florence.

The escape spurred an investigation by Corrections Corp. of America, which owns the prison, and has led to undisclosed changes at the prison and other facilities that the Nashville, Tenn.-based company operates, said Louise Grant, corporation spokeswoman.

Townsend, collared by the U.S. marshals Eastern Washington Fugitive Task Force, was convicted of arson and murder in Mason County, Wash. An investigation into the escape indicated Townsend’s sister, Evelyn Watson, lives in the Spokane, Wash./Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, area.

Watson was spotted in Airway Heights, Wash., in a vehicle with Arizona plates.

When officers stopped the vehicle, she and another woman, Miriam Sammons, were inside, said chief deputy marshal Eric Marks.

One of the women had a motel key and investigators linked it to the Bell Motel in Airway Heights. Agents found the room empty, with an open back window and a cut-out screen. The marshals found Townsend hiding in bushes in a wooded area behind the motel. He gave at least four false names before admitting his identity, Marks said. He was booked into the Spokane County Jail late Tuesday night.

The Florence Police Department is investigating the escape, Hunter said. He said investigators also are checking into the origin of the car with Arizona plates.

The escape was the first for the prison that opened in 1999.

Folsom is now being held in a segregated unit at the Florence Correctional Center, said James E. Thatcher, a superintendent with the Washington Department of Corrections.

Washington prison officials are waiting for Arizona authorities to determine if they want to charge him with escape.

Townsend will be transferred from the Spokane County Jail to a state prison facility in Washington and could also be charged with escape, Thatcher said.

Pinal County Attorney Jim Walsh said his office will determine if the men will be charged in Arizona once it receives the escape investigation report.