SANTA FE, N.M.—The prisoners — both felons with violent criminal backgrounds — made their escape somewhere along a New Mexico highway, clad in white jumpsuits and last accounted for in the back of a state corrections van where authorities said they were bound by shackles.
Even more than 24 hours after their escape, it wasn’t known Friday exactly when or where Joseph Cruz, a convicted murderer, or Lionel Clah, who’s serving time for armed robbery, managed to escape from the van transporting them to a correctional facility in Las Cruces. Authorities have only confirmed that the getaway happened somewhere after a prison-stop in Roswell — a city about 200 miles from Las Cruces, and where corrections staff reported last seeing Cruz and Clah around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
According to authorities, correction officers didn’t even realize the men were missing until about 1 a.m. Thursday. By 4:30 a.m., the two had managed to travel more than 200 miles north to Albuquerque, where surveillance video that surfaced Thursday afternoon showed Clah wearing a red T-shirt and jeans and Cruz wearing a tan, collared shirt and jeans. The video was from a hotel lobby.
