Updated: Police still seeking escaped Lynchburg inmate

Larry Dodson

Address in Sutherlin, VA

Updated 1:13 p.m. Wednesday:

The search for an inmate who escaped from Blue Ridge Regional Jail in Lynchburg continues today.

Authorities narrowed the search to the area of River and Kings roads in Amherst County late last night after receiving information that 20-year-old Larry Wayne Dodson Jr. was seen in the area, said Elton Blackstock, director of the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority.

Despite a search involving a helicopter, tracking dogs and the help of the Lynchburg Police Department, Amherst County Sheriff’s Office and the Virginia State Police, Dodson was not found.
The search for Dodson, of Sutherlin in Pittsylvania County, continues today. Investigators are interviewing inmates who witnessed the escape.
“We still have officers in the general area,“ Blackstock said, adding that officers have handed out fliers with Dodson’s photograph and information in hopes that some may have seen him.

“We are aggressively pursuing him and we look forward to getting him back into custody,“ he said.
Anyone with information on Dodson or his whereabouts is asked to call the Lynchburg Police Department at (434) 455-6041 or (434) 455-6121 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 798-5900 or 911.

Earlier:

Using several bed sheets tied together, an inmate climbed down more than 100 feet from a Lynchburg jail Tuesday morning and disappeared.

As of late Tuesday, police, jail officials and deputies from surrounding counties were still looking for 20-year-old Larry Wayne Dodson Jr., of Sutherlin in Pittsylvania County.

Dodson’s escape, the first for the Blue Ridge Regional Jail on Ninth Street, sparked a daylong manhunt with dozens of law enforcement officers and three bloodhounds down streets and through yards in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Dodson, who escaped from the custody of Pittsylvania authorities last year, was being held in the Lynchburg facility awaiting transfer to a Virginia Department of Corrections prison to serve a seven-year, four-month sentence. He had been convicted of grand larceny, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and the revocation of a suspended sentence.

“It was a pretty daring escape,” said Elton Blackstock, director of the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority.

The jailbreak was discovered shortly after 10 a.m. when staff noticed bed sheets hanging from the side of the jail that faces Madison Street, said Blackstock.

Dodson escaped from a recreational area that is part of a housing unit with 63 inmates. That area was opened to the inmates shortly before 9 a.m.; four or five were using it at the time of the escape, Blackstock said.

The space, an open area with a basketball hoop, is separated from the housing unit by glass. One officer was monitoring the entire unit Tuesday morning, and he was on the other side of the glass from the recreation area, where a GED class was going on, Blackstock said.

“I’d love to have 10 officers to watch 63 inmates at one time, but the reality is you house units with the amount of staff you are appointed,” said Blackstock. “We have been in operation since 1998 and never had anything of this nature occur.”

Blackstock said the officer’s position in the unit left a blind spot where Dodson made his escape. The officer did not know Dodson was missing until the jail initiated an emergency count after the bed sheets were discovered hanging like a rope off the building.

The count turned up a missing inmate: the 5-foot 9-inch, 143-pound Dodson.

Officers locked down Dodson’s unit — one of several at the jail, which houses about 400 inmates — and notified the Lynchburg Police Department, located just across the street, of the escape, Blackstock said.

He said Dodson managed to create the sheet rope, climb up about 25 feet, cut through some security screen and then shimmy down the sheet rope more than 100 feet to escape.

“It should be noted that at 9:30 a.m., a transportation team working in the general area of the exit to the jail noticed the sheets were not there at that time,” Blackstock said, adding that the discovery of Dodson’s escape took no more than 30 minutes.

About 20 Lynchburg Police officers, two tracking dogs from the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office and one from the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office began combing the streets in a three-mile radius of the jail.

Officers blocked roads while the dogs tracked and eventually ended up around Buchanan Street, near U.S. 29.

Jailers are still interviewing inmates in the housing unit as well as collecting physical evidence.

This isn’t the first time that Dodson got away from authorities. He escaped the custody of the Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office in May after his arrest on charges of breaking and entering and grand larceny.

Dodson escaped as deputies removed him from the patrol car and was found later that day hiding in an outbuilding in Chatham.

He was transferred to the Lynchburg jail in December due to overcrowding at the Pittsylvania County Jail in Chatham.

Dodson’s record in Pittsylvania County includes convictions of statutory burglary, grand larceny of a firearm, felonious escape, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, of being a prisoner in possession of a weapon and property damage relating to incidents in May, July and January.

In Roanoke, Dodson was convicted of grand larceny of an automobile and sentenced in May.

Blackstock noted that the jail did not have any disciplinary problems with Dodson prior to his getaway. He said jail authorities are reviewing the jailbreak and their procedures to determine how to prevent another escape.

Anyone with information on Dodson or his whereabouts is asked to call the Lynchburg Police Department at (434) 455-6041 or (434) 455-6121 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 798-5900.