MONROE COUNTY, Ga. — A man who escaped a halfway house in Wyoming in December was captured Friday after making his way to Georgia.
Authorities said 29-year-old Richard Fountaine escaped Casper Re-Entry Center in Wyoming on December 28.. Fountaine was serving a 3- to 5-year sentence for burglary. The Casper Center allows certain inmates to go our for parts of the day for work. However, Fountaine didn't return, but instead climbed a wall and chain-link fence. Investigators say he then climbed into an SUV and left the area.
The SUV was registered to 25-year-old Kimberly Belcher, a staffer at Casper Re-Entry. At some point, the two made their way to Monroe County, Ga.
According to Lt. Chad Beck with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, they received a criminal trespass call on January 9.
"Deputies responded and found the vehicle stuck on a power line. The tags were run it showed the female associated with the vehicle was a suspect with the escapee," Beck said Friday afternoon.
After a two-day search, and a eyewitness account of the two walking around a garage and talking to the property owner, investigators tracked the pair to Highway 42 North, to a wooded area. U.S. Marshals, DOC K9 and a GSP helicopter assisted with the search.
The two were found just before 1 p.m. on Friday, dressed in full camouflage, by a pond, face down on the bank of a dam. The two were hiding their hands underneath them, in hopes they wouldn't be seen.
"They were prepared to hide?" a reporter asked Beck during a news conference.
"Yes," Beck responded.
The two were taken in without a struggle. The two appeared to have been on foot since losing their car two days earlier.
It's unclear where they were headed, what charges they will face in Georgia or when they'll be taken back to Wyoming.
Their first appearance will take place in Monroe County.
According to the Casper Star Tribune, other workers at the facility have made news after prosecutors accused them of having sexual encounters with inmates.