Clockwise from top left: John Thomas Shehee, Harce Wade Allen, David Wayne Frazier and Eric S. Click. (Cocke County Sheriff's Department)
The manhunt is on for one inmate who fled a Tennessee jail through a leaky toilet, as police captured five other men who got a few moments of freedom.
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Officials for the Cocke County Sheriff’s office said six inmates originally made their getaway early Christmas morning, according to KOMO. They added that the breakout was prompted by a water leak that was behind a jail toilet.
“The bolts holding the unit rusted out and there was prior damage to the concrete due to plumbing repairs,” police told ABC News.
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Earlier repairs to plumbing lead to a weakening of the concrete used to encase the wall unit toilet and also caused the bolts holding the unit in place to become rusted out, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.
John Mark Speir (l.) was found inside a home that was near the jail and Steven Lewis (r.) was nabbed after a foot chase with cops. (Cocke County Sheriff's Department)
The inmates managed to remove the toilet from the wall and crawled through a hole in that wall leading them outside the country jail facility.
Two of the inmates have already been apprehended.
Steven Lewis, 37, was nabbed after a foot chase with cops and John Mark Speir, 38, was found inside a home that was near the jail. According to the Sheriff’s office, two men were charged with allegedly assisting Speir. Jarred Schoondermarks, 30, and Daniel Speir, 29, were charged with harboring a fugitive.
Investigators spotted Harce Wade Allen, 28, Eric S. Click, 29, and are John Thomas Shehee, 28, later Monday, and took them into custody.
Still on the loose is David Wayne Frazier, 54.
Frazier was considered to be the most dangerous according to WATE 6. He was in custody for aggrivated robbery and possession of a weapon.
Shehee was facing charges for arson and criminal trespassing as well property theft. Allen had violated probation and was in the midst of covering a 45-day sentence. Click was being held on charges of evading arrest and a series of probation violations.
Anyone with information leading to the whereabouts of the remaining two alleged escapees is urged to call the sheriff's office at 423-623-2064 or the jail at 423-623-6023.
