By MARGARET STAFFORD
Associated Press Writer
LANSING, Kan.- A woman who ran a dog rehabilitation program is suspected of using her van to smuggle a convicted murderer out of a medium-security prison, authorities said Monday.
Investigators initially reported dog trainer Toby Young missing from the Lansing Correctional Facility on Sunday. Now, they say she is considered armed and dangerous, and on the run with John M. Manard, 27, who had participated in her Safe Harbor Prison Dog program.
“She is no longer a missing person,” said Kansas Highway Patrol spokesman Gary Warner. “She is a suspect.”
Authorities said Young, 48, was charged with aiding and abetting aggravated escape after investigating Manard’s escape Sunday, but they declined to provide further details.
Officials are looking into whether anyone inspected Young’s white Ford cargo van _ a normal procedure _ before she drove away from the prison, said corrections spokesman Bill Miskell.
The van was used to transport dogs from animal shelters to the prison.
“There is no search area now because we don’t know where they are,” Miskell said.
Young’s relatives in Wyandotte County declined to comment Monday, saying all information would come from prison officials.
Manard was sentenced to life in prison in the 1996 killing of a man in a strip mall parking lot.
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Wichita correspondent Roxana Hegeman contributed to this story.