1 of 2 Escaped New Mexico Inmates Apprehended, Marshals Say

With the headcount complete, the two guards pulled away from a state correctional center in a remote part of southeastern New Mexico with five prisoners and all of their belongings in tow for the last leg of what had already been a long journey.

Artesia Police Department officers join New Mexico State Police, SWAT, and other agencies gather while investigating a lead in the morning at a home in Artesia, N.M., on March 10, 2016. Authorities were searching Thursday for two violent convicts who escaped from a prisoner transport van and likely got a head start of several hours in a remote area of New Mexico before guards realized they were gone. Brienne Green/Artesia Daily Press via AP

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—With the headcount complete, the two guards pulled away from a state correctional center in a remote part of southeastern New Mexico with five prisoners and all of their belongings in tow for the last leg of what had already been a long journey.

It wasn’t long before they stopped in the next town to put gas in the van. After leaving the convenience store in Artesia, the guards turned off the main highway and crossed through nearly 200 miles of desert and a mountain range before arriving at their final destination in Las Cruces around 1 a.m. Thursday.

Then came the startling discovery.

Undeterred by shackles, two prisoners—a convicted murder and another convict with a violent history—somehow slipped away in white prison jumpsuits and vanished into the night with no one noticing, possibly for hours. They hitched a ride and made it to Albuquerque around the same time that authorities notified the public of the escape.

Left: Inmate Joseph Cruz. Right: Inmate Lionel Clah. The Department of Corrections says Cruz and Clah escaped from a prisoner transport van in the Roswell area on March 9, 2016. New Mexico Corrections Department via AP