A Lansing-area jail inmate still is on the run, about four days after he disassembled a window and used mattress padding to fool officers into believing that he was in his cell, authorities said Monday.
“Right now our priority is to get him back here,” Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth said.
Michael McKerchie, 32, has been missing since Thursday night when security video showed him outside the jail, the sheriff’s office said last week. But he wasn’t actually discovered missing from his cell until Friday morning.
McKerchie, who has previous convictions, had been in custody since Sept. 21. He was accused of unlawfully driving a vehicle away from a donut shop and other crimes.
The sheriff’s office last week said McKerchie escaped from the jail in Mason by “meticulously disassembling a daylight window and the angle iron that was used to frame it.” Mattress padding was shaped to make it appear that he was in his bunk.
It “wouldn’t be prudent” to share more details, Wriggelsworth said Monday.
Investigators believe McKerchie stole a Silverado pickup truck, which has a large decal with a deer and fishhook.
The Associated Press contributed to this article