LITTLE ROCK — Questions remain about how two juveniles escaped from a detention center in Dermott last month and the incident is under investigation, the state Division of Youth Services director told legislators Wednesday.
“We are looking into this,” DYS Director Ron Angel told lawmakers. “We have some concerns.”
The two teenagers escaped from the Southeast Arkansas Regional Juvenile Program’s Dermott Treatment Unit on Jan. 23.
One of the youths, 18-year-old Noah Miller, was captured a few days later in Montgomery County after he called his mother saying he was tired of running and hungry.
The other escapee, identified as Alex Amador, has not been located. The Fort Smith Police Department said this week Amador has ties to Van Buren and Fort Smith.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Angel told lawmakers Wednesday he suspects the 19-year-old with gang connections might be in Texas.
Miller has been charged with second-degree escape and is currently in the Chicot County jail.
Angel said both teenagers had previously been housed in other youth facilities, one state-operated and the other a private facility, and escaped before ordered by juvenile court judges to the Delta Regional Unit. The two escaped through a broken fence, Angel said.
He said youth services personnel were able to track Miller’s whereabouts by checking his Facebook social networking site.
“This is currently under investigation,” he told members of the Senate Committee on Children and Youth and the House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs. “It appears a repair person a day or two days before … is thought to have, when they were backing up the truck, hit the gate.”
The impact knocked the sliding gate off its track, he said.
The teenagers “were able to pull the gate out and slide through it,” he said.
“I have a few questions and we’re investigating it fully,” Angel said after the meeting. “We’re looking at all avenues to make sure it was just a fluke.”