KITTANNING, Pa. (AP) Police in western Pennsylvania are searching for an escaped inmate suspected of killing a woman after walking away from a work-release program.
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Armstrong County officials said Crissman, 38, ran from the jail around 6:30 a.m. Thursday while delivering meals to other inmates.
The search for Crissman was centered in the area of the jail, where not long after his escape, police say he showed up at the home of a couple he knew. A coroner says she was strangled and also suffered blunt force trauma to the head. Crissman is believed to have killed Long after Slagle left for work.
He told jail officials he was getting more meals from a truck outside when he disappeared, the Armstrong County Sheriff’s Office said.
Long, who was an acquaintance of Crissman, invited him into her home without knowing he was an escaped inmate, Andreassi said. He is being processed at a state police barracks and will be taken to a jail in a neighboring county.
“This is very uncharacteristic”, Andreassi said.
The vehicle was spotted Friday morning in Boggs Township.
Authorities said Crissman fled in a maroon 1999 Chevrolet Silverado that belonged to the couple. Minutes later, he knocked on the woman’s door seeking help.
Barry Crytzer, owner of a local advertising paper called The Horse Trader, said Crissman had worked for him as a handyman doing yard work and maintenance off and on over the past year.
Crissman had been serving time at the jail for a drug charge and probation violation and was not initially considered unsafe.
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“When they said it was a homicide it shocked me because he was a really passive guy”, said Crytzer.
