Deputies investigate Jan. 23 after three inmates charged with violent crimes escaped from an Orange County jail.
Kevin Warn / AP
Officials in Southern California on Tuesday increased the reward for three escaped convicts to $200,000.
The reward ballooned in size after the Orange County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved contributing $150,000 toward the total as authorities continue their search for Jonathan Tieu, 20, Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Bac Duong, 43. Described as very dangerous, the men were able cut through steel and rappel five stories down the Orange County Central Men's Jail for an hours long head start before their escape was noticed.
The FBI and U.S. Marshals Service had been offering a collective $50,000 for information leading to their capture.
Orange County Sheriff's Department
Authorities believe Tieu and Duong may still be in the Orange County region due to their ties to local Vietnamese-American gang, but have made repeated call for the public to send in tips. Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has said there is no indication any of the men have left the country.
Tieu was facing murder charges, and Duong was charged with attempted murder in unrelated cases. Nayeri is facing kidnapping and torture charges.
From left: Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu, and Bac Duong.
Orange County Sheriff's Department
Nayeri is one of three men accused of going into a man's home in Oct. 2012 for a robbery, and kidnapping him and his girlfriend. Nayeri and two others were accused of driving the two out to the desert, and torturing the man by burning him with a blowtorch, cutting off his penis, and pouring bleach on him, according to court documents.
"We are utilizing every resource available to ensure these inmates are brought back into custody as quickly as possible," Hutchens said in a statement. "The three escapees, Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu, and Bac Tien Duong, are dangerous criminals."
Nayeri, Tieu, and Duong were being held in dormitory-type housing with more than 60 other inmates.
The inmates cut through half-inch steel bars, cut their way into plumbing tunnels, and somehow accessed an unsecured area of the roof unnoticed, Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock said during a news conference Saturday.
Orange County Sheriff's Department
Investigators are also looking into whether a disturbance at the jail, timed at about the same time the men escaped, might have been intended as a distraction for the jailbreak.
"Based on that disturbance and the timing of things, that may have been part of the planning process," Hallock said.
Authorities did not disclose what type of tools the inmates might have used to cut the metal screen.
On Sunday, authorities released an image of the makeshift rope the men created from linens.
Orange County Sheriff's Department
"I take this situation very seriously and the men and women of the Orange County Sheriff's Department will not rest until all three men are captured," Hutchens said in a statement.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1ni4a5X
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