Prison Break: Three Inmates Still At Large After Escaping Behind Toilet On Christmas

Three out of the six inmates who broke out of a jail in Tennessee on Christmas Day had yet to be found as of Monday afternoon after they managed to escape behind a damaged toilet. Law enforcement authorities said the getaway happened when the inmates forcefully removed a stainless steel toilet that had vulnerable rusted pipes and then climbed through the hole in the wall, according to local reports Sunday.

Two of the inmates, John Mark Speir and Steven Edward Lewis, were captured separately hours after the breakout that occurred around 1:30 a.m at the Cocke County Jail Annex, which is about a four-hour drive east of Nashville. "Apparently the bolts holding the unit rusted out and there was prior damage to the concrete due to plumbing repairs,” the sheriff told local reporters. The inmates vandalized the lavatory removing it from the wall and gained access to a hole which led outside of the facility."

The sheriff said prior to the escape, plumbing repairs performed on the toilet had weakened the concrete connecting it to the wall. And additional water from leakage had caused it to “rust out,” causing it to be susceptibly pliable for the six fugitives, other local reports said Monday.

Speir was apprehended at a home in Cocke County. And two of the Tennessee residents who allowed him into their house were charged with harboring a fugitive. Their relation to Speir has not been released by police authorities.

Police captured Lewis after a foot chase about 6 miles from the jail. The third runaway Eric S. Click, 29, was captured late Monday afternoon, though details of his apprehension had yet to be released.

The three suspects unaccounted for were John Thomas Shehee, 28, held on charges of arson, criminal trespassing and misdemeanor theft; Harce Wade Allen, 28, was being detained for violating probation; and David Wayne Frazier, 54, was incarcerated for aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon, AOL News reported Monday. Police said the men were potentially dangerous and asked the public for any relevant information about their whereabouts. All three men are white.