Escaped inmates caught 6 miles from Cedar Creek Prison

LITTLEROCK, Wash. — The manhunt for the two escapees was intense on the roads in and around Littlerock.

"How are you?" a Department Corrections Officer asked, as he approached a vehicle on 128th Avenue Southwest, flyers in hand. "Anyway we had an escape up at Cedar Creek last night and we're looking for these individuals."

The officers were stopping most vehicles, spreading the word that the men were on the loose.

"So if you happen to see (them), give the police department a call, call 911 or something," the officer said.

30-year-old Richard Dale Harvell and 26-year-old Sage Cree Bear escaped the Cedar Creek Corrections Center at about 9:40 Saturday night.

The men climbed a 10-foot chain link fence with razor wire on top.

Harvell began serving a nearly four-year sentence in March at the minimum security prison. Bear still had a year left on his manslaughter conviction. He shot and killed a friend in Burien in 2007.

Their escape heightened fears for those who live and work in Littlerock. Their pictures were prominently displayed in a Chevron station.

Lori Swearingen had worked at the station about a year.

"It's kinda scary," she said. "But I have faith in them. I think they'll find them."

"Well, they're certainly out there looking for them, that's for sure," she was told.

"Yeah, they are," she said.

Then just after 5 p.m., confirmation came that the men had indeed been caught, just six miles away in Capitol Forest.  It was just as Dustin Griggs predicted.

"I'm sure they're hiding tight in the sticker bushes probably," Griggs said. "Hopefully they catch 'em quick!"

He made that prediction about 45 minutes before the men were actually caught.

DOC officials say the men were injured during their escape and they are being provided medical treatment.

But they will not return to Cedar Creek.  Their escape makes them ineligible for a minimum security prison.

Cox Media Group