Fla. inmates accused of escaping jail after forging documents have ties to Atlanta

ATLANTA — Police interrogated two fugitives Monday who conned their way out of a Florida prison using forged court papers.

Florida investigators now believe the two fugitives were holed up at a hotel waiting for someone from Atlanta to pick them up.

Witness cameras outside a Panama City, Fla. motel caught the dramatic takedown of two convicted killers on the run.

Charles Walker and Joe Jenkins, both 34, were serving life without parole when investigators said they tricked Florida prison officials into letting them out within a week of one another using forged release papers.

"There is speculation that these documents could be constructed for $8,000," said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey.

Bailey confirmed a connection to the Atlanta area Sunday, saying Walker and Jenkins were at the motel waiting for someone from Atlanta to pick them up.

"It was being dispatched out of Atlanta. Who was the driver, or where that driver was going to take them after he or she got here, we do not know," Bailey said.

Though a possible connection to Atlanta, the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Georgia Fugitive Task Force based in Atlanta told Channel 2 Action News it has not yet been called to serve any specific warrants.

Meantime, investigators in Florida are still trying to track down the source of the forged documents.

"I can tell you that there will be more arrests. Obviously we will be backtracking to those who helped carry out this fraud. And along the way we will be looking closely at anyone who may have helped harbor these fugitives," Bailey said.

WSBTV