PRISONERS RECAPTURED

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3269, 7 March 1931, Page 5

PRISONERS RECAPTURED

SURROUNDED IN BUSH.

WORN OUT AND EXHAUSTED.

(By Telegraph. Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. After being at liberty for three days, the two prisoners, Thomas Douglas Forsyth and Kenneth John Evans, who escaped from Mount Eden prison on Tuesday were recaptured in the bush in the Ruatiti Valley, on the upper reaches of the Wanganui river, yesterday. The men were completely surrounded and surrendered without a struggle, both being in an exhausted condition. They are being returned to Auckland.

From the time the escape occurred the prisoners left unmistakable traces of their flight southward, and the police, who instantly set the machinery of pursuit in motion, were able day by day, in fact,* hour by hour, to follow . their progress into the King Country. The motor car stolen by the fugitives outside the prison was found abandoned in the scrub on the side of the road near Wade's Landing, on the Wanganui river, on Wednesday night, and evidence showed that the men were endeavouring to make further south on foot. The search was intensified yesterday with a large force of police, including Constat* e Sherman, of Raurimu, Constable Shields, of Ohakune, Mr W.' H. Glynn, in charge of the Waikune prison camp and five warders and police officers from Raetihi. The fugitives were seen riding in a motor lorry driven by a settler who was journeying from Mangaohutu to Raetihi and it was subsequently learned that the two men had stopped the lorry and asked for a lift. When they saw the police the prisoners jumped off the lori'y and dashed into the bush, with the po ice and warders close at their heels. The fugitives disappeared in the undergrowth, and, not knowing whether they were armed, an encircling movement was carried out. with the result that the prisoners "were completely surrounded. When the police finally closed in. the two men gave themselves up, worn out through exposure and the exhausof the chase. They were taken to Raurimu and will be brought to Auck and by train.