2 Tennessee fugitives caught after vehicle spotted in South Florida

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — Two men who escaped from a Tennessee prison on Friday were apprehended in South Florida on Sunday night, authorities said.

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Robert Lee Brown, 36, of Putnam County, and Christopher Lance Osteen, of Madison County, were captured in Pompano Beach, the Sun-Sentinel reported. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, both men escaped the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee.

Brown was serving an 18-year sentence for aggravated rape and was scheduled to be released from prison in 2022, the Jackson Sun reported. Osteen was serving an eight-year sentence for burglary, with his release scheduled for 2023, the newspaper reported.

Brown was arrested by Broward County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday during a traffic stop, but Osteen fled the scene, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Osteen was found about an hour later after area residents were alerted to an armed and dangerous fugitive, sheriff’s office spokesperson Sgt. Don Prichard told the newspaper.

Broward County deputies used a helicopter, SWAT teams and K9 units to search the area, Prichard told the Sun-Sentinel.

According to WKRN, corrections officers at the Tennessee prison discovered that Brown and Osteen were missing just before 8:30 a.m. Friday after an emergency recount. Officials also reported that the inmates kidnapped a Kentucky Highway Department employee from Fulton County, Kentucky, from a boat ramp on the Mississippi River. That afternoon, the employee was found in Henry County, the television station reported.

Early Saturday, Henry County authorities found a resident tied up in his home, WKRN reported. His 2009 red Chevrolet Silverado was stolen but has since been recovered, the television station reported.

“This was a manhunt that originated at the Mississippi River and ended on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean,” U.S. Marshal Tyreece Miller said in a statement. “We are glad to have helped in bringing to an end this threat to the public’s safety.”

Cox Media Group