By Associated Press - Monday, January 25, 2021

PHOENIX (AP) - Authorities on Monday were doing door-to-door searches of homes in a several mile radius around the state prison in Florence where two inmates escaped from last weekend.

John Charpiot and David Harmon escaped Saturday from the medium custody south unit by breaching a fence using tools retrieved from a facility room.

“We have concern that they are still in the area. They could be holed up someplace,” Arizona Department of Public Safety Director Col. Heston Silbert said at a news conference.

Silbert said the search includes roadblocks out of Florence, two different SWAT teams, air units and investigators contacting possible affiliates of the inmates. The U.S. Marshals Service also is assisting in the search.

Charpiot and Harmon broke into a tool shed by knocking down an air conditioning unit and breaking through a wall, according to authorities.

The two inmates were able to obtain a bolt cutter and wire snips and used them to cut a fence.

Charpiot was sent to prison in 2011 on a 35-year sentence for molestation of a child and sexual abuse out of Maricopa County.

Harmon has been imprisoned since 2012 after being convicted out of Maricopa County and sentenced to 100 years for kidnapping and second-degree burglary charges.

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