A soft-spoken middle-aged couple helped bring an end to the massive manhunt for Timothy Murray, one of four inmates who escaped from the St. Tammany Parish Jail last Thursday.

The couple, who asked not to be identified, was returning around 8 p.m. to their mobile home near Folsom that serves as a weekend residence. The trailer sits about 500 feet off the highway, and as they drove up to the door they noticed a window had been broken and pushed out.

The man got out of his car to investigate, instructing his wife to stay in the car, and as he did so, he pulled out a small handgun. “We live way back in the woods, and he always carries it, just in case,” said the woman. “When he went around the back there was a young man coming out the back door, and my husband shouted at him, asked him what he was doing and told him not to come any closer.”

The woman said they had seen news reports about the escaped inmates, three of whom were apprehended quickly, and had an inkling the man might have been Murray, who had managed to elude capture. Reportedly armed with a steak knife, Murray immediately fled upon being addressed by the man, dropping the knife as he ran.

Murray was apprehended a few hours later, at about 1 a.m., in a wooded area off Bennett Bridge Road approximately three miles west of Louisiana Highway 25. His capture brought to an end an effort that St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain said was the largest direct manhunt he has witnessed in his 30-year career in law enforcement.

“There were hundreds of agents involved, from federal, state and local agencies,” said Strain. “To see the partnership these agencies formed, with the tenacity and the commitment they showed was humbling.”

Both the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Customs & Border Protection provided air support, deploying helicopters armed with Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR). A thermal imaging system, FLIR helps law enforcement or military personnel track targets in areas that are difficult to see due to low light or other environmental obstacles. The system was instrumental in the early capture of the other three prisoners.

Members of St. Tammany Fire Districts 5, 8 and 12 were also on hand, providing handheld FLIR devices until air support arrived. In addition, the Louisiana State Police, Covington Police Department and the Washington Parish Department of Corrections provided manpower, while Acadian Ambulance helped ensure officers did not dehydrate and allowed the helicopters to refuel at its air station. During a press conference Monday afternoon, Strain described how investigators found a footprint in a 2,000-acre hunting preserve not far from where the couple encountered Murray. After receiving the call from the couple, who identified Murray in a lineup, Duke, a 2-year-old bloodhound with the agency’s K-9 unit, picked up the scent and helped lead the officers to Murray, who was hiding under a pile of logs.

Murray reportedly came out fighting, and encountered Gaston, a Belgian Malinois with the K-9 unit. Also known as the “bite dog,” the shepherd helped hold him in check until more officers arrived to take Murray back into custody.

Drawing comparisons to the movies “Escape from Alcatraz” and “The Shawshank Redemption,” Strain said the escape of the four men “defied logic.”

“It is almost unbelievable they did what they were able to do,” said Strain. “The difference here is while Andy Dufresne’s character (in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’) retired to live in luxury on the beach, these men will go back to jail, probably for the rest of their lives.”

Details about the jailbreak have been scarce, but Strain did allow that it was not believed to be due to human error. Instead, he said it was more likely that the men were able to “defeat the structure” of the jail due partially to the fact that a handful of incorrect screws were used during its construction in the 1970s.

Strain also confirmed that the men crawled under an inner perimeter fence by cutting some of the retaining wires, but how they came to be in possession of such as tool to do so is still under investigation.

More details could be released as early as tomorrow.

Murray, 29, escaped on June 18 along with Gary Slaydon, 30, Jason Gainey, 27, and Eric Buras, 30. Slaydon, Buras and Gainey were captured early Friday morning, while Murray, previously described as the most cunning of the four, had remained at large.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman George Bonnett said Murray, Buras and Gainey were all awaiting trial for charges of first-degree murder, and second-degree murder. Slaydon was convicted of attempted second-degree murder, armed robbery and aggravated battery for a 2007 attack on his Slidell neighbor, and 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 trial for the beating death of Slidell resident Carl Glass in April 2006. Murray and Jody Swafford, a Florida man, were traveling as migrant workers, and during a botched robbery at Glass’ home the pair beat him to death.

Video footage of Murray’s capture is available at www.thesttammanynews.com/articles/2009/06/23/multimedia/doc4a411cd4de046224911800.txt.