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BARNEGAT TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — An escaped inmate who once served time for manslaughter for killing a baby eluded authorities for a third day Thursday, leading to increased security at schools in the New Jersey town where he was last seen.
Barnegat Mayor John Novak said Thursday that a flood of leads failed to turn up 38-year-old Arthur Buckel and that state officials informed Barnegat that he is no longer there.
Surveillance video showed Buckel shopping at a CVS on Wednesday, a day after the minimum security inmate was found missing when guards did a count at Bayside State Prison in Hammonton. Hammonton is about 50 miles southwest of Barnegat.
Novak said that police officers had been stationed at all of the town's schools and that state police were escorting buses Thursday afternoon.
Matt Schuman, a spokesman for the state's department of corrections, declined to release additional information on the search for Buckel.
Buckel, whose last known address was in Clifton, had been serving a sentence for aggravated assault, drug possession and burglary. He was scheduled to be considered for paroled later this month.
Buckel previously served 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter of a 10-month-old child. He admitted to striking the child five or six times because she was crying after the girl's mother brought the child with her when visiting Buckel in 1995. He was released in 2010.
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