The Pennsylvania murder suspect who sent authorities on a manhunt nine days ago when he escaped prison has been captured.
Michael Burham, 34, fled the Warren County Jail shortly before midnight on July 6 with sheets tied, sparking an urgent multi-agency search.
Panic-stricken authorities described him as a “dangerous” prisoner with self-taught survival skills, and he was held on charges of murder and rape.
So told a source with knowledge of the attempts to capture him CNN that he eventually became entangled in a wooded area near Warren, Pennsylvania.
A Warren County official added that they are “preparing an isolation cell” for the inmate, but they plan to release him from jail by Sunday. The authority did not say where he would be transferred.
Michael Burham escaped from the Warren County Jail in Pennsylvania on July 6
The prison is located in a remote part of the state just 70 miles southeast of Lake Erie, next to the Allegheny National Forest
During the week-long search for the suspected killer, police found a trail of evidence that eventually led them to him in the wooded area.
Among the supplies found were clothes, food and a bag of items “someone might need if they were trying to live in the woods,” police said.
Burnham is facing a slew of criminal charges from behind bars, and detectives are reportedly working to link him to the shooting death of a woman in May.
He has an extensive military background and spent over 10 years in the Army Reserve serving as a water treatment specialist.
Police have investigated whether Burham had help from a prison officer when he made his daring escape.
Michael Burham was described by police as extremely dangerous and a self-taught survivalist
The prisoner has a disturbing track record of crimes that landed him behind bars, with authorities stressing that he was extremely dangerous during his time on the run.
Last month, District Attorney Jason Schmidt of Chautauqua County, New York, said Burham is the prime suspect in the May 11 murder of 34-year-old Kala Hodgkin and a related arson attack in Jamestown, New York.
At the time of her death, he was wanted on a separate charge of raping her.
After allegedly shooting Hodgkin to death, he went on the run for two weeks and police are accusing him of kidnapping an elderly couple while evading arrest.
He was finally arrested and taken into custody on May 24.
After his July 6 escape, investigators said he left a trail of “breadcrumbs” in his wake, which ultimately led to his arrest.
“He could be a survivalist, but so are the US Marshals. Once that noose starts to tighten and they make that mistake, it’s all over,” Lenny DePaul, a retired commander of the US Marshals Service, told The New York Post at the time.
Burham hoisted himself out of Warren County Jail (pictured) by climbing onto exercise equipment and then out of a metal-gated roof
Burham is ‘prime suspect’ in May shooting of 34-year-old Kala Hodgkin
Burham’s first attempt to evade law enforcement in May led him to yet another maddening day-long search, with police at the time claiming the 34-year-old was involved in a “surge of alleged crimes.”
Burham was already wanted by authorities on charges of rape, and it is said that Jamestown police also responded to a domestic violence incident in which Burham’s ex-girlfriend claimed he broke into her home and set her vehicle on fire stabbed.
In the aftermath, the Pennsylvania State Police were contacted by a person concerned that her parents were not attending their granddaughter’s football game on May 20.
The victims were not at home when the police carried out a health check, nor did they answer police calls.
Eventually, South Carolina Highway Patrol officials contacted state police and said they found the victims alive in a cemetery in North Charleston on May 21.
The victims said they were abducted at gunpoint from their home in Sheffield, Pennsylvania and identified Burham as their kidnapper.
He was found later that day hiding in a nearby shed.