Sevier County deputy sheriffs intensified search efforts early Tuesday for a jail escapee accused of murder after finding evidence of a burglary and what a dispatcher described as "fresh tracks."
Brett Allen Olsen, 23, Salina, escaped from the Sevier County Jail in Richfield about 9:45 p.m. Sunday after overpowering a guard who had let him out of his cell to make a telephone call.Olsen faces an Oct. 23 preliminary hearing in 6th Circuit Court. He is charged in connection with the Sept. 7 stabbing death of William Paul Jensen in Salina.
Deputies have been searching around the clock for Olsen, who they believe may be trying to reach family members in Salina, 18 miles north of Richfield.
Early Monday morning, Richfield police drove through city neighborhoods using loudspeakers to warn residents to lock their doors. Police believe Olsen startled a Richfield boy Monday night when the boy went to a camper trailer to retrieve some articles. A man grabbed the boy by the arm and warned him not tell anybody that he (the man) was there. The man then fled east.
Virtually the entire sheriff's force was in the field Tuesday as officers attempted to close in on Olsen. The dispatcher said officers were gradually tightening the search area.
"We can't say for sure, but we hope to have an arrest made by noon," the dispatcher said.