Escaped Louisiana Woman on the Run After Jail Break
A female inmate in jail for murdering her boyfriend escaped from a La. prison.
Jan. 2, 2012— -- A Louisiana woman in prison for killing her boyfriend broke out of the state's Correctional Institute for Women and is on the run across the state.
Keana Barnes, 33, climbed over a fence and escaped from the jail facility early Tuesday morning, leaving blood behind near the fence and a discarded jacket, police told ABC News affiliate WBRZ.
Barnes was serving a 25-year-sentence for manslaughter for the death of her boyfriend in New Orleans in 2003. She then went on the run to Mexico before being apprehended by authorities and sent to Louisiana prison in 2004, according to the report.
Police are searching the New Orleans area for Barnes, who is considered armed and dangerous. They are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to her arrest.
Barnes is 5-foot-4 and 140 pounds, and is believed to have shaved her head last week, though her hair is typically brown, the prison told WBRZ.
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections did not return calls from ABC News seeking information.
Residents in the vicinity of the prison told the news station that they were upset the state authorities did not notify them of the escape. It was the second prison break in a week from the facility in St. Gabriel, La. The prison has a men's unit as well and the other escapee was a man.
"I think as a resident living right across the street from the prisons, the police department should at least come knock on our doors, and let us know that there's been an escape so we can keep a watch out and be a little extra safer than we are, but we didn't get any phone calls," Susan Livaudais, who lives next to the prisons, told WBRZ.
Judith Gremillion said she typically locks her doors, but is not worried about the escaped inmates.
"Pretty much every time there's been an escape they've always had some kind of car waiting for them. They don't go into the swamp and I've never seen them on the street," she said.
St. Gabriel police did not immediately return calls for comment.
