By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
Police were searching for a 29-year-old inmate who escaped from the minimum-security Waiawa Correctional Facility yesterday morning.
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| John Edward Nipper, 29, has been reported missing from the minimum-security Waiawa Correctional Facility.
CrimeStoppers photo |
Correctional officials reported John Edward Nipper Jr. missing at about 8 a.m. yesterday after he failed to show up for his work assignment in the facility, said warden J. Phillip Tumminello.
Officials locked down the prison at 94-560 Kamehameha Highway from 9:50 a.m. to about 2 p.m., but could not find Nipper, Tumminello said.
Authorities used a helicopter and trained dogs to search the perimeter of the prison, which holds more than 300 inmates and is surrounded by a barbed wire fence, Tumminello said.
Nipper was convicted for first-degree terroristic threatening in 1998 and first-degree theft and first-degree burglary in 1999, according to the Hawai‘i Criminal Justice Data Center.
Nipper spent time at the Maui Community Correctional Center, Halawa Security Facility and was transferred to Waiawa on Jan. 20, 2000, Tumminello said. He had a tentative parole date of December 2001, Tumminello said.
Four inmates have tried to escape the facility over the past three years, but all were caught nearby, Tumminello said.
Police said Nipper has family on Maui and may attempt to leave O‘ahu. Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300.
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