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'These guys might as well give up': Putnam County Sheriff details what goes into a fugitive hunt

Sheriff Howard Sills says federal and state agencies use a lot of technology, but mostly work on the ground asking for witnesses and looking for family.

MACON, Ga. — The four escaped Bibb County inmates Joey Fournier, Chavis Stokes, Marc Anderson and Johnifer Barnwell are still on the loose.

The reward for capturing all four is now up to $73,000. The FBI and United States Marshals Office and other agencies are involved in the hunt.

It leaves many people with a number of questions: Where are the four now? Are they together or split? How long will the men be on the run?

As day four comes to an end of the search for the inmates, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills says he has no doubt the men will be found. Sills is no stranger to a manhunt. 

He is a former Dekalb County Fugitive Task Force member, and in 2017, he experienced his own escaped inmate hunt here in Central Georgia.  

"We were successful in apprehending these people pretty quickly," Sills said. 

It lasted three days. Two prison inmates shot and killed two corrections officers during a routine bus transport. The men were later found in Tennessee.

"They were both together," he said. "That helped,"

However, in the case of Bibb County's four missing inmates, Sills says they might not be together since they did not have any connection to one another before their time in the Bibb County Jail. That could make the search harder. 

"It's a matter of hunting," he said. 

To do that, he says state and federal agencies use a lot of technology, but he wouldn't discuss details. He said it's mostly groundwork.

"Work on the street, find people who know them. See who's seen them. Of course, lighting the media. Putting their pictures out there," he said.

Sills says if the men are from the Macon area, they are likely close to home.

"They're on the lam, and they've got to have help. So if they don't have friends in another state or something, they're going to stay relatively close," Sills said.

The four men got a three-hour head-start. According to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, the men escaped from the jail around 3 a.m. and authorities realized they had escaped at 6 a.m. when they found a hole in the fence. 

It was eight hours between when the men likely escaped on Monday and when the Bibb County Sheriff's Office notified the public. 

Sills says law enforcement will catch up.

"That's a detriment that anyone would have regardless of where it happened," he said. 

Sills says it's still important for the public to keep an eye out for all four escapees as law enforcement works to track them down.

He says there is no way to determine when the four men could be caught. 

"That's not determinable, but believe it or not, the more there are, usually the quicker one will be caught," he said.

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