Deputies investigate Jan. 23 after three inmates charged with violent crimes escaped from an Orange County jail.
Kevin Warn / AP
Three inmates facing violent charges cut through steel and rappelled five-stories down the roof of a Southern California jail to escape from the high-security facility sometime Friday night, authorities said.
The jailbreak sparked a manhunt for the three men throughout Orange County Central Men's Jail and the city of Santa Ana, but officials said the men appeared to have fled the area.
Orange County Sheriff's Department
However, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said in a news conference on Sunday that officials are making progress in their search, and they don't have any indication that the men have left the country.
"We've gotten a number of what I would call very good tips," she said, according to the Orange County Register.
Officials said Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu, and Bac Tien Duong were being held in a dormitory-type of housing with more than 60 other inmates.
Tieu was facing murder charges, and Duong was charged with attempted murder in unrelated cases. Nayeri is facing kidnapping and torture charges.
From left to right: Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu, and Bac Duong.
Orange County Sheriff's Department
Nayeri is one of three men accused of going into a man's home in Oct. 2012 for a robbery, and kidnapping him and his girlfriend. Nayeri and two others were accused of driving the two out to the desert, and torturing the man by burning him with a blow torch, cutting off his penis and pouring bleach on him, according to court documents.
"We are utilizing every resource available to ensure these inmates are brought back into custody as quickly as possible," Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said in a statement Saturday. "The three escapees, Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu, and Bac Tien Duong are dangerous criminals."
The three escapees were seen in the jail Friday morning, but were discovered to be missing sometime Friday evening, according to a statement from the department.
The inmates cut through half-inch steel bars, cut their way into plumbing tunnels and somehow accessed an unsecured area of the roof unnoticed, Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock said during a news conference Saturday.
Orange County Sheriff's Department
Investigators are also looking into whether a disturbance at the jail, timed at about the same time the men escaped, might have been linked as a distraction for the jailbreak.
"Based on that disturbance and the timing of things, that may have been part of the planning process," Hallock said.
Authorities did not disclose what type of tools the inmates might have used to cut the metal screen.
On Sunday, authorities released an image of the makeshift rope the men created from linens.
Orange County Sheriff's Department
"I take this situation very seriously and the men and women of the Orange County Sheriff's Department will not rest until all three men are captured," Hutchens said in a statement.
The FBI is offering up to a $20,000 reward for information leading up to the arrest of any of the three men. The U.S. Marshals Service also is offering $30,000, the Orange County Register reported.
SOURCE: BuzzFeed
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