Manhunt for escapees focuses on Grand Beach

GRAND BEACH, Mich. | If not for the helicopters and police searching the trunks of cars Monday for three prison escapees, life in this upscale community appeared normal.

People were out jogging, watering lawns and going about daily routines seemingly unworried that two convicted murderers and a rapist were loose from Indiana State Prison, less than 10 miles away in Michigan City.

One of the escapees, convicted murderer Charles Smith, was captured at gunpoint at 5:40 a.m. Monday by a member of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's security detail. Smith was apprehended in a driveway near Daley's summer home.

Police believe a second man spotted nearby is Mark Booher, the other convicted killer who fled the maximum-security prison Sunday morning. Grand Beach Police Chief Dan Schroeder said authorities believe Booher, 46, might be hiding in town.

"We believe the suspect is still in the area some place," Schroeder said Monday afternoon.

The third escapee, convicted rapist Lance Battreal, 45, had not been spotted since the prison break.

Schroeder said Daley's security guard happened to see the 48-year-old Smith in the driveway of a home on East McKean Drive, about a quarter-mile from the mayor's vacation home.

Schroeder said there was a sighting overnight of two men walking along the nearby railroad tracks beside U.S. 12, and a Grand Beach woman called police after spotting two men and exchanging words with one of them just prior to Smith's capture.

The search continued into the night, with more than 100 officers from federal, state and local agencies scouring Grand Beach and areas toward the state line just to the west and New Buffalo, Mich., to the east.

Schroeder said the U.S. Coast Guard was keeping an eye on the shoreline as other law enforcement agencies searched using helicopters, tracking dogs and four-wheelers in the wooded areas.

"This is a full-scale operation," Schroeder said.

Long Beach police Officer Toby Babcock was stationed at one of the entrances to town, checking all vehicles leaving the community. Drivers seemed more than willing to cooperate.

"They're happy we're looking for these people," Babcock said.

The Grand Beach Municipal Golf Course closed Monday as a precaution.

But Dick Edgeworth, 75, took his four grandchildren from Dallas to the course to hit balls at the driving range and even played the first hole before taking the family out to lunch. He didn't believe Booher might still be nearby.

"The guy's long gone," Edgeworth said. "He's not around here."

Frank Stone, 72, said his first reaction was disappointment: He had to cancel a golf game in Chicago so his wife wouldn't be left home alone.

"That wouldn't be a good idea -- if they got into our house while I was out playing golf," said Stone, adding he locked his doors and windows after learning of the prison break.

"I'm not too afraid," Stone said.

Nancy Lyne said she initially locked her doors but later ventured out to enjoy the day.

"It was a little scary at first. I'm being cautious," she said.

Also feeling cooped-up was 70-year-old Nancy Roberts, who at noon shrugged off her fears and started some yardwork.

"I really think any guy who's got an ounce of sense is going to hightail it out of here if his partner was caught," Roberts said.

John Schrader, an Indiana State Prison spokesman, said evidence was being collected in the escapees' cellblocks in an attempt to pin down where the men might be headed.

"We don't know for sure if they're still together or not," Schrader said of the two remaining escapees.

There were no reports of injuries to the public as a result of the escape, he said.

Other details, like whether the escapees still had on prison uniforms, remained unknown. The three men were discovered missing at about 10 a.m. Sunday.

Prison officials said the men, all of whom had no chance of release before 2041, apparently cut or broke through bars and locks leading to a tunnel where sewer, water and other utility lines come into the facility. Schrader called those security measures "extremely difficult to get past," suggesting the escape took several days to plan and execute.

The tunnel they escaped through runs nearly a mile long and ends at 10th Street in Michigan City, near an outlet mall, said Doug Garrison, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Correction. He said the escapees likely were forced to crawl through some secions of the tunnel.

Times Staff Writer Susan Erler contributed to this report.