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2 escape from work camp

K-9 teams from Jackson and Appalachee Correctional Institutions search for a fugitive in the wood off of Smokey Road and Highway 2 near Graceville Monday.

By By AMANDA CLARK Floridan Correspondent
Published: December 15, 2009

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Heavy fog set in Sunday and Monday, making efforts difficult to locate two juveniles who fled the Department of Juvenile Justice facility across the street from the Graceville Work Camp in separate incidents.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and the Graceville Police Department patrolled the Graceville area into the night Sunday, searching for the two male juveniles.
The names of the two were not released because they are under the age of 18.
According to a Jackson County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, one juvenile fled the camp Sunday afternoon, just before 5:20 p.m.
He then fled Jackson County and traveled to Freeport, where he later turned himself in to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, where he is currently still being held.
Whether or not he will be extradited back to Jackson County had not yet been determined as of press time.
The second juvenile apparently left the work camp on furlough last week and did not report back. His family reportedly notified authorities, informing them he had obtained a vehicle and left. The juvenile is not from the Graceville area; however the vehicle he obtained, which was owned by a family member, was found in the Graceville area not far from the work camp.
Authorities do not know why the juvenile returned to the area. Several reports of a suspicious person, thought to be the juvenile, were reported to authorities Monday. The Graceville Police Department and the sheriff’s office were spread along Highway 2, in hopes of surrounding the juvenile in a wooded area not far from the work camp.
According the sheriff’s office, Department of Corrections canine units were also involved in efforts to apprehend the juvenile, who remained at large as of press time.