By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
Three men who escaped from a jail in Cassville, Mo., early Friday are believed to be responsible for the theft of an SUV in Salina that was later found in far western Kansas.
Raelynn Sickman, 29, of Salina, reported her maroon 2005 GMC Yukon stolen from in front of her residence in the 100 block of S. Connecticut Avenue at approximately 8:45 p.m. Saturday, Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester said this morning. Sickman told police that she had last seen the SUV at approximately 7:45 p.m. Saturday and that it had been unlocked with the keys inside, he said.
The SUV was valued at $6,000.
A neighbor told police of seeing a woman wearing a tan shirt and jeans shorts and carrying a drawstring bag and a man with brown hair who was wearing sunglasses, a t-shirt, and gray shorts in the area at the time of the theft.
An officer investigating the theft went around the corner to Casey's at E. Iron Avenue and S. Ohio Street to check surveillance video but was told to come back on Sunday. When the officer was able to review the video on Sunday, she saw a man and a woman who fit the neighbor's description near the vacuums at Casey's. Forrester said they were around a white 2002 GMC Sierra 2500 pickup that Salina police learned was stolen from Barry County in southwest Missouri.
They also learned from the Barry County Sheriff's Office that three people early Friday morning had escaped from the county jail in Cassville, Mo., and were believed to be connected to the theft of the pickup found in Salina.
The Barry County Sheriff's Office, in a news release posted on its Facebook page Friday morning, reported that early that morning three inmates, identified as Lance Justin Stephens, Matthew Allen Crawford, and Christopher Allen Blevins, escaped from the Barry County Jail. According to the news release, the trio should be considered armed and dangerous.
In an update Monday morning on its Facebook page, the Barry County Sheriff's Office reported that the case had been turned over to the United States Marshals Service to find the escapees.
While Salina police were working the local theft case, they were notified by the Wallace County Sheriff's Office in Sharon Springs that Sickman's Yukon had been found there, Forrester said. It is believed that whoever took the Yukon then stole another vehicle in Sharon Springs, he said.