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Latest: No answers from transport company in prisoner escape

This undated booking photo released by Bell County Sheriff's Office shows Cedric Marks. Authorities say surveillance video helped police locate the MMA fighter facing murder charges after he escaped a prison van in Texas. The police chief in Conroe, Texas says Marks was found Sunday hiding inside a 55-gallon trash can. Marks is suspected in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her friend. Their bodies were found buried in a shallow grave in Clearview, Oklahoma, on Jan. 15. (Bell County Sheriff's Office via AP)
Original Publication Date February 04, 2019 - 9:16 AM

CONROE, Texas - The Latest on the recapture of an MMA fighter and murder suspect who escaped custody while being transported in Texas (all times local):

11:55 p.m.

A private Texas company that transports prisoners is declining to say how an MMA fighter suspected in the deaths of two people was able to escape from one of its vans.

A person who answered a phone number listed for Texas Prisoner Transportation Service said Monday that no one was available to speak about the escape of 44-year-old Cedric Marks.

Marks was apprehended in Conroe, Texas, about nine hours after escaping early Sunday when the prison van stopped at a McDonald's.

The company says on its website that its transportation specialists have a minimum of two years' experience in law enforcement, corrections or the military. The company says it treats all detainees "as maximum security."

The Bell County Sheriff's Department contracted the company to bring Marks from Michigan, where he was arrested.

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11:15 a.m.

A Texas police official says a double murder suspect who escaped from a prisoner transport van was found hours later with an arm and leg free from the shackles he had been wearing.

Conroe police Lt. Dorcy McGinnis on Monday declined to say whether authorities believe 44-year-old Cedric Marks was able to partially free himself from the shackles or if he was improperly secured.

Marks was being transported in a private van along with nine other prisoners Sunday when he escaped from the vehicle. He was found about nine hours later less than a mile from the McDonald's where the van had stopped.

The van had been en route to the Bell County Jail, where Marks is being held Monday on capital murder and other charges. He is suspected in the deaths of an ex-girlfriend, Jenna Scott, and Scott's friend, Michael Swearingin.

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8:30 a.m.

Authorities say surveillance video helped police locate an MMA fighter facing murder charges after he escaped a prison transport van in Texas.

Conroe Police Chief Jeff Christy says Cedric Marks escaped while wearing leg, hand and belly restraints. He was found Sunday hiding inside a 55-gallon (208-litre) trash can in Conroe, about 40 miles (65 kilometres) north of Houston.

Marks had escaped earlier Sunday after the driver of the private transport van stopped at a McDonald's. Christy says Marks was still wearing his orange prison jumpsuit when he was captured.

Murder warrants were issued Sunday for Marks in the killings last month of his ex-girlfriend, Jenna Scott, and Scott's friend, Michael Swearingin.

Both disappeared on Jan. 4. Their bodies were found Jan. 15 buried in a shallow grave in Clearview, Oklahoma.

News from © The Associated Press, 2019
The Associated Press

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