Escapee found sleeping at mother's home

ROCKPORT, Ind. (WISH) - Escaped inmate Lance Battreal is back behind bars. Federal, state and local authorities found the convicted rapist asleep at his mother's home in Rockport, Indiana -- 250 miles south of the Michigan City prison he escaped from.

Battreal's mother, Geraldine Lynch, said officers showed up at her front door around two o'clock Tuesday morning, but she did not call them. U.S. Marshals said a tip from the community led them to Lynch's home.

On July 12, during a 10 a.m. bed check, Michigan City prison guards learned three inmates were missing. But 15 minutes earlier, security cameras at a nearby gas station caught two of them shopping at the convenience store.

Officers caught convicted killer Charles Smith the next day. However, convicted rapist, Lance Battreal, and convicted killer, Mark Booher, were still on the run.

Battreal's mother insists he isn't a danger to society.

"No, not at all. All he wanted to do was come and be with his momma. I haven't seen him in 24 years," said Lynch.

Monday afternoon, Lynch saw her son when he arrived at her Rockport home.

"He walked all the way through the woods, through fields, sometimes on old roads. Police would pass him on the road, he waved to them and they would just go on," said Lynch

Lynch described how the three inmates became separated while on the run.

"The first one that they caught, he just basically couldn't go on so he kind of just got caught. The second one couldn't keep up with Lance, so they went their separate ways," she said.

Lynch said her son told her he has thyroid cancer.

"He said the doctor told him that it had traveled into his throat and toward his spinal cord and that it was inoperable," Lynch said.

Doug Garrison of the Indiana Department of Correction said the DOC has no record that he was either treated for cancer or that he was diagnosed with cancer.

Meanwhile, the hunt continues for Mark Booher.

U.S. Marshal Dave Murtaugh said Booher is considered to be a very dangerous individual and shouldn't be confronted by anyone outside of law enforcement.

Lynch said her son didn't know where Booher was headed.

Battreal is currently in the Vanderburgh County Jail in Evansville and will go to the maximum security wing of the Wabash Correction Facility near Terre Haute.

Smith is at the Westville Correction Facility in northern Indiana, also under maximum security.