Law enforcement officials reportedly found a convicted murderer dead in a river Sunday after he escaped an Ohio prison earlier in May.
The body of Bradley Gillespie, 50, was found floating in the Ohio River at approximately 1:30 p.m. by a boater who alerted authorities to the scene, according to CBS News. Upon arrival, police were able to recover the body, which they reportedly believe to be Gillespie’s. Henderson Police Chief Sean McKinney said that although they cannot confirm the body is Gillespie’s until the autopsy, “Everything we have seen and done indicates that this is Mr. Gillespie that we have recovered,” according to the outlet.
Escaped Ohio inmate found dead in the Ohio Riverhttps://t.co/Xz3DhjvLkX
— WGN TV News (@WGNNews) May 29, 2023
Gillespie has been missing from the Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution since May 23, when correctional officers at the facility discovered he and fellow inmate James Lee were gone. A subsequent widespread manhunt led authorities to the border of Indiana and Kentucky on Wednesday morning, where Henderson police officers apprehended Lee after he crashed a stolen vehicle. The car’s other occupant, believed to be Gillespie, fled the scene and had been missing since. (RELATED: Fisherman Finds Body Of 36-Year-Old Michigan Man Floating In River)
Though it is not immediately clear how the individual died or how long he had been in the water, the state of the decomposed body led McKinney to assert the individual had died four or five days before he was found, the outlet reported.
“We are glad to have closure to this situation,” McKinney told reporters, according to CBS. “However, I do not feel it is appropriate to celebrate death of any life at this time.”