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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
National
Kate Feldman

3 Louisiana juvenile inmates in custody after escaping, allegedly with help of security guard

Three teenagers who escaped from a juvenile detention center in Louisiana early Saturday morning were recaptured a little after midnight Sunday after police tracked down their getaway car, driven by the security guard who allegedly helped them make a run for it.

TyJuan Lafitte, 17, Jeremiah Durham, 17, and Na’Varaya Lane, 15, were reported missing around 7 a.m. Saturday when the oncoming day shift at the Ware Youth Center in Coushatta clocked in, according to the Red River Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Officials have not released details, but accused 21-year-old Victoria Tune, a security guard at Ware, of helping the three escape, driving them off the premises in a white 2010 Pontiac G6.

Investigators tracked the car to the parking lot of a Houston motel and stayed watch for hours until the escapees and the security guard returned, the Red River Parish Sheriff’s Office said Sunday. They were dropped back off at the hotel by a relative of one of the suspects, officials said.

All four were taken into custody by the Houston Police Department’s Crime Suppression Team and are being extradited back to Louisiana.

Additional charges are expected.

Lafitte was serving time for attempted first-degree murder, Durham for armed robbery and Lane for attempted second-degree murder.

Tune’s relationship to the three is unclear.

The assisted prison break comes just weeks after Vicky White, an Alabama corrections officer, broke inmate Casey White out and the two fled on an 11-day run before she died by suicide and he was recaptured.

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