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On May 16, 2025, 10 inmates reportedly escaped from Orleans Justice Center in New Orleans. Three days later, seven of them are still at large, and now, the FBI is doubling the reward offered for information that leads to their capture.
According to Newsweek, the men who escaped from the jail Friday morning were identified as Dkenan Dennis, Gary C. Price, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles, Corey E. Boyd, Lenton J. VanBuren Jr., Jermaine Donald, Antoine T. Massey, Leo O. Tate Sr., and Derrick D. Groves. Dennis, Myles and Moody have since been recaptured and are back in custody, but the others are still roaming free with no official word on their whereabouts, which is why FBI Special Agent Jonathan Trapp has announced that the bureau is now offering $10,000 per inmate instead of the $5,000 it originally offered.
In addition to the FBI’s reward offer, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has offered $5,000 for information on the escapees, and CrimeStoppers offered $2,000. Moody was reportedly located and apprehended thanks to a CrimeStoppers tip.
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said Friday that the inmates — all of whom are either convicted of, charged with or allegedly connected to violent crimes including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, kidnapping, rape and domestic abuse — may have “received assistance in their escape from individuals inside of our department.” Hutson also “attributed the escape to ‘defective locks’ at the Orleans Justice Center, stating she had repeatedly requested funds to address the aging building,” Newsweek reported. However, the escape was reportedly far more elaborate than inmates simply walking through an unlocked door. In fact, according to Fox 8, “Officials say they removed a toilet and breached a wall behind it, then used a loading dock door to exit the jail, scaling fences and crossing I-10 under cover of darkness.”
Either way, it took more than eight hours for the inmates’ absence to be discovered as they reportedly escaped just after midnight on Friday and weren’t discovered missing until a routine headcount was done at 8:30 that morning.
“We are confident at this time that we have actual intelligence on all seven of those fugitives,” State Police Superintendent Col. Robert Hodges said Monday, according to Fox 8. “We hope that in the coming days, if not the coming hours, that we have them all apprehended.”
