While the New York prison escape saga came to an end last month with the capture of one inmate and the death of another, there remain hundreds of other prison escapees across the country, and one of them hails from our region. Jasper native Harry Dana Braswell Jr., who would be 57 if still alive today, has been on the run ever since escaping from the Sumter Correctional Institution in 1983. Braswell is one of four teenagers convicted of suffocating and killing a 79-year-old Suwannee County man in his home in 1975.

According to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records, Braswell, Marshall Eugene Dunbar, Joseph Perry Padelford and Billy Wayne Taylor were prowling for a house to rob in Suwannee County on Feb. 19, 1975. The four chose the home of John J. Robins, Dunbar’s 79-year-old neighbor.

The group faked car trouble and Robins offered to let the boys borrow his car to jumpstart their own. Unsatisfied, the group returned to Robins’ home armed with handguns, saying they couldn’t get the car started. Robins invited them inside for a drink, and when he opened his refrigerator, Dunbar and Braswell pointed their guns at his back.

After Robins offered the group $5 and $200 in traveler’s checks, they proceeded to ransack his home and cut the phone lines. When they were done, they made Robins sit on his bed and asked him if he was going to tell anyone about what had just happened. Robins said he would, and the four young men conducted a conference in which it was decided that the elderly man “would have to die.”

Robins’ hands and feet were tied together, and his feet were tied to the bed. Dunbar believed Robins might forget the incident if they made him breathe through an alcohol-soaked cloth. When that plan failed, Braswell suffocated Robins with a pillow for 10 minutes, killing him. The group untied Robins, took his pulse to make sure he was dead and tucked him into bed, leaving the home with a small amount of cash and Robins’ car.

The four split up, but were all arrested three days later in Quincy, Fla. Braswell and his three co-defendants pled guilty to murder and received prison sentences of 25 years to life.

In 1983, eight years into his sentence at Sumter Correctional Institution near Bushnell, Fla., Braswell and a fellow inmate hatched a scheme to bust out of prison, according to the archives of the TV show America’s Most Wanted (AMW). The duo climbed into filing cabinets that were in the back of a truck at the prison’s loading dock and hid there until the truck drove off, unbeknownst to the driver.

Braswell and his partner in crime jumped out of the truck when they were outside of the prison gates. His partner was caught several years later in Oregon during a routine traffic stop, but Braswell has remained on the loose for 32 years.

“Fugitive Harry Braswell’s escape is being actively investigated by multiple law enforcement agencies,” stated Florida Department of Corrections Office of Communications Director McKinley Lewis. “We continue to pursue all viable leads as we work toward returning him to Department custody.”

The FDLE, Florida DOC, Interpol, FBI, and U.S. Marshal’s Service continue to search for Braswell, and any information connected to him, according to Lewis. There is a cash reward available for any information that leads to his arrest and callers can remain anonymous if they wish.

“If you have any information regarding Braswell, you are encouraged to call FDLE Special Agent Fred Harden at (813) 878-7300 or Florida DOC Inspector Rita Hall toll-free 1-866-850-0355,” Lewis said. “Callers may also submit the tip information to Crime Stoppers toll-free by calling 1-866-845-TIPS (8477).”

According to FDLE and AMW, Braswell, now 57 years old, has been known to go by the following nicknames or aliases: “Moody,” Robert McQuery, Dana Brasswell, Harry Brasswell, Troy Jackson, Robert McCery and Robert Troy Jackson. He is a 6-foot-tall white male with blue eyes and brown hair that may be graying or receding now. He was last weighed at 145-150 pounds, but could be between 175-200 pounds.

Braswell can be identified by his tattoos – if they have not been removed – of a cross on a chain on the back of his right hand and a tattoo of his initials, “HDB”, and a heart on his left arm.

He has been spotted in Alabama, Texas and Georgia, and has connections in Leon, Hamilton and Washington counties in Florida. He has relatives in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Texas.

“Braswell’s crime should not go unpunished,” FDLE Special Agent Fred Harden stated in an interview with AMW. “He is a murderer. He took a man’s life and destroyed a man’s family.”