Authorities looking into Elbert Co. area for escapees

Published 11:34 am Wednesday, June 14, 2017

As the search continues for two prison escapees who shot and killed two state corrections officers Tuesday in Putnam County, officials are looking into whether or not a truck reported stolen Tuesday night from a rock quarry in the Morgan County area is related to the case.

According to an Associated Press report, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said the two inmates “thoroughly ransacked” a house in Madison, about 25 miles north of where the escape happened, several hours after the guards were killed. Sills says they took some food and likely some clothes and left their prison uniforms behind.

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Authorities are now also reportedly checking the Hartwell, Danielsville and Elbert County areas.

One of the escapees, 24-year-old Ricky Dubose, has a long criminal history in Elbert County.

Dubose is serving a possible 20-year sentence for theft, armed robbery, and aggravated assault stemming from an Elbert County incident in 2014. Previously, he was convicted of theft, entering a vehicle, and several counts of financial identity fraud in a series of crimes committed in 2010.

Rowe, meanwhile, stands 6-feet-1, weighs 181 lbs., and has brown hair and blue eyes.

The other escapee, Donnie Russell Rowe, 43, who also is known by the alias “Whiskey,” was serving a possible life-sentence without parole for two counts of aggravated assault, one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and two counts of armed robbery following crimes in 2001 that happened in Macon-Bibb County.

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the escapees should call 911 immediately, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office at 706-485-8557 or the FBI at 404-679-9000.