PRISONER ESCAPE
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Law enforcement officers and K-9 units were searching the area next to Valley Health Care on Friday for Denver Bennett who escaped while working with a crew from the Pruntytown Correctional Center.
Bennett
ELKINS -- Local law enforcement officers were combing Elkins on Friday after an inmate from the Pruntytown Correctional Center escaped while on work release in the area.
Randolph County Sheriff Rob Elbon said that Denver Bennett, 30, of Valley Head, was in town helping the city with preparations for the Mountain State Forest Festival when he fled.
Bennett was still at large as of press time Friday night.
According to Elbon, Elkins City Police received the initial call about Bennett's escape from a Pruntytown official who told officers that he had run off from the Forest Festival Building on Lough Street. From there police chased Bennett across town where he was spotted in the area of McDonald's Restaurant.
"He quickly moved out of city limits and they ended up chasing him across town and the railroad bridge next to McDonald's," said Elbon. "From there he got up in the woods up behind KFC."
Officers and K-9 units scoured the area behind KFC for hours and the search extended to other parts of the city as police responded to possible sightings across the area throughout the day.
"We were after him across the railroad tracks behind KFC sometime around lunchtime," said Elbon. "The dogs had a good track on him but we just didn't run into him."
Bennett was indicted by the Randolph County grand jury in March of 2022 on one count of burglary, a felony, and one count of petit larceny, a misdemeanor. At the time he was also named in a separate and unrelated indictment, indicted on one count of receiving stolen goods, a felony, one count of fleeing in a vehicle with reckless indifference, a felony, and one count of fleeing from an officer by any means other than the use of a vehicle, a misdemeanor.
Elbon said that tracking Bennett is more difficult because he knows the area well. He also said that he knows first-hand just how elusive Bennett is after past run-ins with convict.
"He ran from us six times on a warrants," said Elbon, "We'd have him surrounded and he'd take off and somehow get away from us."
Elbon said Bennett was last scene wearing Khaki pants and a white T-shirt. He added if anyone sees Bennett to not approach him and call 911.
"If anyone sees him walking down the road or something don't stop, just pull off somewhere and give us a call," he said. "He could be wearing something different than he was wearing the last we saw him, he could have pulled something off a clothes line or anything."
Elbon said police currently have a command post set up at the old Kelly Tire Building next to KFC. Other than the Randolph County Sheriff Department and Elkins City Police, the search has also had the assistance of the West Virginia State Police, Buckhannon Police Department, Department of Corrections, and Barbour County Sheriff's Department.
"The Marshall's service is on there way and we have K-9's in here from all over," Elbon said Friday afternoon.