HENDERSON, Ky. — According to authorities, Bradley Gillespie, 50, a fugitive who escaped from the Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio on May 23 is thought to be located by the United States Marshals when a body was found floating in the Ohio River, near where he originally fled from police.
Gillespie, who was convicted in a double homicide case in 2016, escaped the facility with James Lee, a 47-year-old man serving at least 20 years for burglary, breaking and entering and safe cracking charges.
The two surfaced in Henderson, Kentucky Wednesday after they were spotted in a stolen vehicle and pursued by local police. The inmates then crashed the car they were driving in near Hays Park in Henderson, Kentucky and fled on foot, according to authorities.
Lee was arrested near the Indiana-Kentucky border early Wednesday morning just after the crash, but Gillespie evaded police, officials said.
Dozens of law enforcement and search agencies were utilized in an effort to locate Gillespie, officials said. Aircraft was used as well as numerous canine search units in the process.
"We turned over every stone. We searched and searched. There was probably at least 40 or more personnel that gave it all they had. So, again, I think we'd done everything we could," said Henderson Chief of Police Sean McKinney
On Sunday afternoon law enforcement received a report of a body in the Ohio River, called in by a boater. After locating the body, preliminary information indicates that it belongs to Gillespie.
While an autopsy will be conducted on Tuesday, law enforcement said that a physical inspection and tattoo on the body lead them to believe it is Gillespie. The cause of death has not been determined, but officials believe he was injured in the process of fleeing from police.
As the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction conducts an internal investigation into the escape of Lee and Gillespie, four corrections employees have been placed on paid leave.
But for now, law enforcement believes they exhausted all of their resources in the manhunt and that with the discovery of the body in the Ohio River Sunday, they have closure to the situation.
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