Four escape from St. Tammany jail

A murder suspect eluded a massive manhunt in St. Tammany Parish on Friday after he and three other inmates pulled off a nighttime escape Thursday from the parish jail in Covington.

Officers on the ground and in helicopters scoured a 20-mile area for Timothy Murray after he and the others broke out of the jail in what Sheriff Jack Strain described as every law enforcement agency's worst nightmare.

The men, each accused of committing, assisting or attempting murder, escaped about 9 p.m. and prowled along the edge of the woods that line Collins Boulevard in Covington.

Murray was cut severely by razor wire and lagged behind. Leaving him with only a black-and-white striped shirt to staunch the bleeding, his companions moved on, hoping that without him they would have a better chance of avoiding the deputies and tracking dogs that bore down on them.

But just hours after leaving the walls of the St. Tammany Parish jail behind, the three men -- Gary "Fuzzy" Slaydon, Eric Buras and Jason Gainey -- were spotted by a helicopter early Friday and captured in a wooded area not far from the jail, leaving only their weakened comrade at large.

"We won't relax until we catch him," Strain said.

The jail break sparked what officials describe as the biggest manhunt in St. Tammany Parish history as hundreds of deputies, officers and troopers flooded into the streets, neighborhoods and woods north of Covington.

As deputies manned checkpoints, checking car trunks and truck beds for hidden felons, police dogs and their handlers spread out through the woods, guided by searchlights and thermal-imaging cameras from helicopters hovering above.

By Friday afternoon, the Sheriff's Office had expanded the search area for the 29-year-old Murray, spreading law enforcement in a 20-mile radius around the jail. These efforts will be focused in more sparsely populated areas outside the city, where Murray is more likely to hide. Officials believe he is still in the Covington area, Strain said....