Published: July 24, 2009 01:38 pm      

Last of three escaped Indiana State Prison inmates caught

Mark Booher found at hotel in Indy

INDIANAPOLIS — The last of three convicts who escaped from the maximum-security Indiana State Prison was captured at a hotel in Indianapolis on Thursday after 11 days on the run, authorities said.

About 20 members of a U.S. Marshals fugitive task force arrested convicted murderer Mark Booher around noon on the northwest side of the city, Supervisory Inspector Shannon Robinson said. He was alone and unarmed in the hotel room, which was not registered in his name, she said.

Booher and two other inmates escaped July 12 through the underground tunnel system of the prison in Michigan City.

Convicted murderer Charles Smith, of New Castle, was captured the following day about eight miles from the prison in Grand Beach, Mich. Authorities arrested Lance Battreal, who was convicted of rape, on Tuesday at his parents’ home in the southern Indiana town of Rockport.

Booher, 46, also from New Castle, about 40 miles east of Indianapolis, was taken to the Indiana Department of Correction intake center in Plainfield, Robinson said.

“Everyone is tremendously elated to have this over,” she said.

U.S. marshals learned Wednesday that Booher was in the Indianapolis area, and investigators found out he was staying at InTown Suites, an extended stay hotel, the marshals said in a statement. Authorities did not provide many details about how they located Booher, but Robinson said it didn’t come from a tip.

Investigators were piecing together how Booher got from Michigan City to Indianapolis and whether the escapees had help, she said. The investigation was still “in its infancy” and likely will be taken over by state authorities, Robinson said.

“I think ... these guys thought about this for a long time and they thought of a lot of contingencies,” she said.

A woman who answered the phone at InTown Suites said the hotel would have no comment.