As of press time Saturday morning, law enforcement authorities were still on the hunt for one of four prisoners that escaped from the St. Tammany Parish Jail Thursday night. Three of the prisoners were captured early Friday morning about a mile north of the jail.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. George Bonnett said. Gary Slaydon, 30, Jason Gainey, 27, and Eric Buras, 30, were captured when a Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office helicopter spotted them in the woods using a thermal imaging camera. The fourth escapee, Tim Murray, 29, was still on the run, and by Saturday the Sheriff’s Office had expanded the search area to a 10-mile radius around the jail.

Bonnett said the Sheriff’s Office got two calls from the Covington Police Department and a citizen around 9 p.m. Thursday reporting that four men were walking down the street dressed in prisoner’s clothes. Bonnett said that at the same time, deputies were doing a head count of prisoners in the jail, they came up four short. The jail was immediately locked down, and deputies came in from all over the parish to hunt for the four prisoners.

Tim Murray was still being sought by the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office Saturday morning.

“We swarmed the area with deputies,” Bonnett said.

Besides the deputies, and the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, Bonnett said searchers are also using the STPSO helicopter, and a helicopter from U.S. Customs. Also involved in the search is the Louisiana State Police, and the state Department of Probation and Parole.

Bonnett would not go into details how the four men escaped. However, he did say it was not due to human error. Instead he said the men somehow “defeated the structures in the area of the maximum security section of the jail.”

“We are reviewing what happened to make sure a similar breach does not happen again,” Bonnett said.

Although the jail is at its absolute maximum capacity, 1,296 prisoners, St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain does not feel the escape was due to overcrowding. A number of prisoners are pre-trial prisoners, but others are convicted criminals from other areas housed at the jail for a fee, called “profit prisoners.”

Police believe that Murray was the only one injured during the escape. Bonnett said that Murray was seriously cut on razor wire during the escape.

Murray, Buras and Gainey were all awaiting trial for charges of first-degree murder, and second-degree murder. Bonnett said Slaydon has been convicted of attempted second-degree murder, armed robbery and aggravated battery for a 2007 attack on his Slidell neighbor. Bonnett said Slaydon was awaiting transfer to another penal institution.

Buras from Pearl River, is accused of killing 19-year-old Katie Wilkerson of Alabama by drowning her in the West Pearl River in 2006. Gainey stands accused of second-degree murder for being an accomplice in the 2001 murder of Mandeville homemaker Samantha Jaume.

Murray, 29, of North Carolina, is awaiting trail for the beating death of Slidell resident Carl Glass in April 2006. Murray and Jody Swafford, of Florida were traveling as migrant workers, and during a botched robbery at Glass’ home, they both beat him to death.

“Of the four, Murray is the most persistent and cunning,” Strain said Friday afternoon. “It’s no coincidence that he separated from the others. He probably thought he had a better chance of getting away without them.”

Strain does not think Murray is armed, but cautioned residents to be careful. Bonnett said Murray is considered dangerous. Both Bonnett and Strain said that if residents see anybody that resembles Murray, they should call 911 immediately.

There have been several calls from people who think they have sighted Murray. A young man called police Friday afternoon saying a shirtless man ran past his house and then ran into the woods. However, deputies did not find anybody.

Strain expects calls like this. He said statistically, a number of false sighting calls come in between 18-36 hours of an escape or a crime from private citizens. But also in this time frame, one will work out and the criminal caught.

Still it has kept residents in northern section of Covington on alert and fearful. Diane Pilgrim, a resident in an area being searched, was surprised when she tried to turn down Penn Mill Road Friday afternoon, and found sheriff’s deputies and Covington Police along the street. “I knew they were searching for escaped prisoners, but I’m just trying to get home,” she said. She was allowed to continue through to her residence.

Strain said the search is intensifying and the Sheriff’s Office will not stop until Murray is back behind bars.

“Every inch of real estate is being covered on foot, with dogs, four-wheelers and the use of helicopters,” Strain said. “We are aggressively and intensely searching the area.”