Washington officials apprehend prison escapee in Seattle

Washington officials said Tuesday morning that a man who escaped a minimum security prison north of Seattle last week is now back in custody.

Patrick Lester Clay, 59, escaped the Monroe Correctional Complex around 7:40 a.m. on April 26 by breaking into a staff office and stealing car keys.

Officials said in a statement that Clay had been captured in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood "without incident" on Monday night. Officials found the white truck he had been driving abandoned in the Central District earlier that day.

The department says Clay will be placed in restrictive housing, and that his case will be referred to local prosecutors to pursue escape and auto theft charges.

Clay was already serving time for burglary, harassment and theft charges in King County, and was scheduled to be released at the end of 2025.

The last time a prisoner escaped from a Department of Corrections facility was in 2022 after a prisoner climbed over a fence at Coyote Ridge Correction Center in Southeastern Washington.

Last year, several children at the Echo Glen juvenile detention facility near Snoqualmie escaped or attempted to. But that facility is overseen by the state’s Department of Youth and Families and not the Department of Corrections. [Copyright 2024 Northwest News Network]