The South Carolina man who helped police catch fugitive inmate Michael Burham when he was on the run in May says he is out for ‘revenge’ after escaping from his Pennsylvania jail two weeks ago.
Burham broke out of Warren County Jail on July 6, just two weeks after being booked in on a charge of kidnapping.
He is also suspected in the rape and murder of Kala Hodgkin, a woman whose body was found at her home in Jamestown, New York, on May 11.
On May 24, after Hodgkin’s body was found, Burham was arrested in Berkeley County, South Carolina, after Anthony Phillips spotted him hiding out in his yard.
On May 24, after Hodgkin’s body was found, Burham was arrested in Berkeley County, South Carolina, after Anthony Phillips spotted him hiding out in his yard
Burham was arrested in May after two weeks on the run. He was wanted on charges including rape and murder
Phillips called police and they were able to apprehend Burham, a military vet who is considered ‘dangerous’.
Now that he is free again, Phillips fears Burham will come after him.
‘He’s gonna come back for revenge. He’s gonna do this,’ he told ABC 4 News in South Carolina.
Phillips however said he was ‘not worried’ about having another run-in with him, because ‘this time, it’ll be a different story.’
On May 24, Burham was hiding out in Phillips’ yard after two weeks on the run.
He was wanted at the time for the rape of Hodgkin, and had become the prime suspect in her murder too.
Phillips found Burham hiding in his backyard and called police in May
He is shown pointing in the direction Burham took off in after he spotted him on May 24
The jail is in a remote part of the state just 70 miles southeast of Lake Erie, next to the Allegheny National Forest
The criminal rappelled down this building using tied-together bedsheets, shown, after hoisting himself onto a roof by climbing onto a pull-up machine
By the time he got to South Carolina, he had also allegedly kidnapped an elderly couple while stealing their car to make the drive.
He has been on the run again for five days, and the hunt for him is heating up.
Yesterday, Pennsylvania State Police gave a press conference where they said he was likely to be found soon after leaving ‘breadcrumbs’ in his wake.
Burham is the ‘prime suspect’ in the shooting death of Kala Hodgkin, 34, in May
Burham has an extensive military background, spending more than 10 years in the Army Reserve where he served as a water treatment specialist.
He used bed sheets to escape from the jail, tying them together and rappelling down the side of the building after using a pull-up bar to get onto the roof.
Police are now also questioning whether he had any help in his escape from anyone working inside the jail.
They say he has been using small campsites surrounding the Allegheny National Forest to sleep, moving on every day to avoid detection.
Fox News cites military sources who say that while he never deployed, he sought additional firearms training while in the Reserve.
Authorities say he is a ‘self-trained survivalist’ who could now be hiding out in the Allegheny National Forest — which covers more than half a million acres of rural Pennsylvania on the New York border.
The jail is in a remote part of the state just 70 miles southeast of Lake Erie, next to the Allegheny National Forest
Michael Burham escaped from the Warren County Jail in Pennsylvania last Thursday
District Attorney Jason Schmidt of Chautauqua County, New York, said last month that Burham is the prime suspect in the May 11 killing of Kala Hodgkin, 34, and a related arson in Jamestown, New York.
At the time of her death, he was wanted on a separate charge for raping her.
After allegedly shooting her dead, he went on the run for two weeks, hijacking an elderly couple’s car.
He was eventually arrested on May 24 and was brought into custody. The young mother was found dead in her home after a 911 call reported shots fired.
Authorities also accuse him of abducting an elderly couple in Pennsylvania while trying to evade capture before his arrest in South Carolina.
Warren city police said Burham ‘is considered very dangerous’ – but that he is leaving ‘breadcrumbs’ in his wake that are helping the authorities.
‘They’re chasing a ghost right now. But he’s dropping breadcrumbs. That’s a good thing — those are mistakes on his behalf.
“He could be a survivalist, but so are the US Marshals. Once that noose starts tightening and they make that mistake, it’s all over,’ said Lenny DePaul, a retired commander of the US Marshals Service, told The New York Post.
The US Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $7,500 for information that helps lead to Burham’s capture. Warren County Crime Stoppers is offering another $2,000.
