Timeline of search effort for 3 escaped Orange County inmates

ByABC7.com staff KABC logo
Timeline of 3 oc inmates' escape, capture
A timeline of the escape of three inmates from the Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana and their capture.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A timeline of the search for the three inmates who escaped from the Orange County Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016.

Jan. 22 - Hossein Nayeri, 37, Jonathan Tieu, 20, and Bac Duong, 43, escape from the Central Men's Jail. The trio saws through a metal grate covering a plumbing tunnel, then crawls through piping to reach the jail's roof. There, they push aside barbed wire and use a rope made of bed sheets to rappel four stories to the ground. They're picked up by an accomplice shortly after their brazen escape.

Jan. 22 - Orange County sheriff's deputies count and recount inmates several times and realize three inmates are unaccounted for. A search of the jail reveals the path the inmates took off the roof to the ground below.

Jan. 22 - A taxi driver picks up Nayeri, Tieu and Duong in Santa Ana and drives them to a Target store in the 3600 block of Rosemead Boulevard in Rosemead. Nayeri abducts the taxi driver at gunpoint.

Jan. 23 - Duong arranges to test drive a white GMC utility van advertised on Craigslist. He steals the vehicle during the test drive from South Los Angeles.

Jan. 23 - After attempting to change their appearance at a hair salon in El Monte, Nayeri, Tieu and Duong spend three nights at the Flamingo Inn in the 8600 block of Garvey Avenue in Rosemead.

Jan. 26 - The three fugitives and the kidnapped taxi driver take both the stolen white GMC utility van and the cab to a post office in Garden Grove, where Tieu mails a letter to his family as a false lead. They then drive to the Alameda Motel in San Jose.

Jan. 27 - The Orange County Sheriff's Department announces five arrests in connection to the escape, drawing connections between local Vietnamese gangs and Duong and Tieu.

Jan. 27 - Nayeri, Tieu and Duong eat at a Lee's Sandwich shop and spend their last full night at the Alameda Motel in San Jose. Nayeri and Duong are involved in a physical fight over whether to kill the taxi driver.

Jan. 28 - Nooshafarin Ravaghi, 44, who teaches English as a second language to jail inmates, is arrested. Ravaghi, who is believed to have become close to Nayeri, allegedly provided maps of the jail facility to aid the suspects in their escape.

Jan. 28 - Nayeri and Tieu leave the motel to have the windows of the stolen white GMC utility van tinted. While they're gone, Duong and the kidnapped taxi driver leave and drive back to Rosemead. Nayeri and Tieu then leave the Alameda Motel in San Jose during the night in the stolen white GMC utility van.

Jan. 29 - Duong arrives at an auto repair shop in Santa Ana and surrenders. His friends call 911 to turn Duong in to the Santa Ana Police Department without incident. Nayeri and Tieu remain at large.

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Jan. 30 - Nayeri and Tieu are arrested after a civilian flags down officers near San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and points out their stolen white GMC utility van.

Jan. 31 - Nayeri and Tieu arrive at the Orange County Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana following their arrests in San Francisco.

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Feb. 1 - Capt. Jeff Hallock, a spokesman with the Orange County Sheriff's Department, announces the arrest of Loc Ba Nguyen, who allegedly aided the inmates in their brazen escape by smuggling tools and other items into the Central Men's Jail.