Daley's Guard Catches Escaped Inmate

A convicted killer who escaped from the Indiana State Prison was caught Monday near the Michigan vacation home of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley by an officer on the mayor's security detail, authorities said.

Police warned nearby residents to stay inside because two other escapees were still on the loose. The three men were discovered missing Sunday morning from the maximum-security prison in Michigan City, Ind., apparently escaping through underground tunnels and pipes, the Indiana Department of Correction said.

Daley said he was at his southwestern Michigan vacation home early Monday with his wife and three grandchildren when one of his guards saw two men fitting the descriptions of the escapees near the house in Grand Beach, Mich.

The officer caught 48-year-old Charles Smith at gunpoint in a driveway near Daley's home, and police later arrived and took him into custody, said Grand Beach Police Chief Dan Schroeder. The other man ran off into the woods, Daley said.

Schroeder said police believe the other man seen near Daley's home was one of the escapees -- convicted killer Mark Booher, 46, of New Castle, Ind. Police told residents to lock their doors and not go outside.

"Until this individual is apprehended, I don't want them to take any chances," Schroeder said.

Authorities also were looking for the third escapee, convicted rapist Lance Battreal, 45, of Rockport, Ind.

Daley said he didn't think the escaped convicts were targeting him or his home, located about eight miles from the Indiana prison. "I think they were lost," Daley told reporters in Chicago later Monday.

The three men were in the same housing unit at the state prison, but it's unclear how they knew each other, said Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison. Prison officials were talking to people who knew the inmates, including people on their visitation or e-mail lists and family and friends.

Smith, Booher and Battreal started serving time in the late 1990s and all faced at least 30 more years behind bars. The prison sits in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Michigan City, about 30 miles west of South Bend and not far from Lake Michigan and the Michigan state line.

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