[CrimsonTide4]

Missing Inmates Found Hiding in Mo. Prison
Mon Oct 27, 9:52 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press Writer

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - A light tap, a hollow sound and a punch through
a fake wall. That's how the search for two escaped inmates came to an
end four days after they vanished leaving behind a dead man and a
threatening note.



Christopher Sims and Shannon Phillips were found Sunday morning still
inside the Missouri Penitentiary — hiding behind a false wall in a
basement near where the body of a third inmate was found the night
the men disappeared.


A prison staff member discovered the false wall and punched a hole in
it.


"Phillips immediately stuck his hand out and said, 'I give up,'" said
John Fougere, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.


Inside the hideout, authorities found food and a small mattress. The
convicted murderers surrendered without a struggle and were placed in
segregation, Fougere said.


Hundreds of prison officials had been combing the penitentiary and
its grounds since the men disappeared Wednesday, suspecting the two
might never have escaped. No evidence of an escape had been found and
no sightings of the men had been reported outside the prison.


The basement where the men were found had been searched repeatedly
and was next to the ice plant where they are believed to have killed
convicted murderer Toby Viles on Wednesday evening, corrections
officials said. Viles, 28, was serving life without parole for
killing three siblings.


Cole County Sheriff John Hemeyer has said that a note found near
Viles' body bearing the initials of the two inmates claimed
responsibility for his death and threatened to kill anyone who got in
their way.


The three men had been working alone in the ice house with such tools
as chisels, hammers and shovels. Preliminary autopsy results show
Viles died of blunt trauma to the head.


Phillips, 35, has been serving a life prison sentence for a murder in
Kansas City. Sims, 27, had been serving a life sentence for a murder
in St. Louis.