As Oklahoma authorities continue to search for Travis Lee Davis, Pettis County, Missouri authorities are continuing to investigate how he escaped from the Pettis County Jail in the first place.
Davis, 30, of Sedalia, escaped over last weekend, spurring a multi-state manhunt for the dangerous inmate.
Davis was being held on a $100,000 bond in connection to last month’s hostage situation in the 400 block of Buckner Court. He has been charged with kidnapping, first-degree domestic assault, first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and resisting arrest. He was charged Monday with escape from confinement and issued a $100,000 cash-only bond.
Davis was taken into custody - momentarily - on Wednesday after he fell asleep behind the wheel of his escape vehicle at a Heavener truck stop and the woman he had kidnapped was able to escape and get the police involved.
Hopwever, despite being handcuffed and in the back of the partrol car, Davis managed to get his cus/ffs in front of him, climb through a partion and escape with the patrol car, only to crash it two miles away and flee on foot,.
Davis is a 6-foot-tall white male weighing 150 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes and several tattoos, including an eye within a triangle on the front of his neck. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and gray pants.
Deputies and detectives in Missouri were following up on leads Monday as the search continued. Bond said they don't know if Davis is in Pettis County or has left the area. He said Davis is known to be assaultive and is considered dangerous.
“I’d advise (the public to) not approach him, that they get as much information as they can about where they’re at, that type of information, and then contact the Sheriff’s Office or if they’re not in the local area, contact the local law enforcement agency,” Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond said.
According to court documents, Pettis County Sheriff’s Office detectives reviewed jail video footage and determined Davis escaped around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9.
According to Bond, he was discovered missing during headcount at 10:30 p.m. Sunday, March 10. The document states Davis “climbed up into the ceiling of G Pod, across the rafters, through a maintenance access hole in the concrete wall, into a maintenance access closet, which lead to an exterior exit on the S. Lamine side of the jail and fled on foot.”
The front of the jail faces South Lamine Avenue, same as the sheriff’s office, while the back faces South Massachusetts Avenue.
Bond told the Democrat that Davis was able to get on the upper deck of the jail cells, onto a railing and on top of a false ceiling over the shower area, which is not part of the cells. He said the ceiling gave Davis access to the top of a cinder block wall behind the showers, where he was able to knock out the cinder blocks. That gave him access to the maintenance area.
“Once he was able to break through that wall, that top level which rests right against the top of the roof of the jail, it didn’t have the fortification apparently that the rest of it did,” Bond said. “He worked at it a little bit, and was able to remove the blocks.”
