Escaped, recaptured inmate Burham charged with unlawful flight
- Escapee Michael Burham was captured after a nine-day manhunt
- He faces an unlawful flight charge with additional charges expected
- Pennsylvania State Police: Our strategy was to push him to make a mistake
(NewsNation) — Pennsylvania prison escapee and homicide suspect Michael Burham has been charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution after he fled from a Warren County jail.
Burham will be arraigned on the federal charge this week and is expected to face additional charges. He is temporarily being held at the Erie County Prison.
Police say when Burham was captured, he was wearing his jail-issued pants inside out, and appeared to be wet, dirty and worn out.
While interviewing the escapee, police say Burham was pridefully bragging about being able to lead officials on the nine-day chase.
His nine-day run as an escaped fugitive came to an end Saturday after a labrador named Tucker helped with Burham’s capture. After hearing Tucker bark unusually long at something near his owners’ creek, Ronald Ecklund walked over to find out what was going on.
That is when Ecklund came face-to-face with a man he immediately recognized as Burham.
Eklund says he and his wife quickly called 911 after exchanging a few words with him.
“He had a backpack he was putting on. You know, that’s when I said ‘What are you doing?’ He said camping as he’s putting on his backpack and he just started walking away and I didn’t look back at that point,” Eklund said.
Within minutes, search teams surrounded the area near the couple’s home and Burham was captured after a two-hour search, ending a nine-day manhunt.
Two hundred people across 15 different law enforcement agencies searched through the rural and heavily wooded area near the jail, convinced Burham had not traveled far. Search teams worked nonstop in the belief that they would eventually wear him down.
“That’s been our strategy all along is to push him hard to have him make a mistake. He finally did. It was spotted,” Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police said.
Investigators are now trying to determine whether he had any help.