Missing Indiana inmate found hiding in ceiling of prison

WLS logo
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Orville Morris
Orville Morris after being captured by prison staff inside Westville Correctional Center in La Porte County, Indiana.
Indiana Department of Corrections-WLS

WESTVILLE, Ind. -- An inmate at a northwest Indiana prison who went missing on Friday was located inside the prison, the Indiana Department of Corrections said Sunday.

On Friday afternoon, Orville Morris went missing inside the pallett shop where he worked at Westville Correctional Center. La Porte County Sheriff's Deputies conducted a building-to-building search of the prison's 100 acre campus searching for Morris.

Authorities said Sunday Morris was still inside the pallett shop after crawling into mechanical systems in the ceiling. Staff returned to the pallett shop and heard a noise and found Morriss hiding on a ledge of the building's HVAC ductwork, the department said.

After prison staff located Morris, he yelled "I give up. I give up," department officials added.

Morris was being questioned by the prison's correction police officers and will be placed in an extremely high security restrictive housing unit.

He was being held on charges of burglary, robbery and receiving stolen property and was now being charged internally for the escape attempt.

"We never give up. Our teams went through the entire facility three times searching for him. We would keep on searching until he was found," said Superintendent Mark Sevier.

Copyright © 2024 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.