U.S. Marshals(NEW YORK) — Federal authorities have released new images of a pair of murder suspects who overpowered security guards and escaped from a prison transport van last week.
The photos were taken at San Juan County Jail where Blane Barksdale, 56, and his wife Susan Barksdale, 59, were housed the night before they escaped last Monday, U.S. Marshals said Saturday.
“These updated photos of Blane and Susan Barksdale were taken shortly before overpowering the transport team outside of Blanding, Utah,” U.S. Marshal David Gonzales said in a release Saturday. “We are asking anyone who knows of their whereabouts or sees them to call the U.S. Marshals Service or 9-1-1 immediately.”
The couple was being extradited from New York to Pima County, Arizona, when they allegedly rushed two unarmed security guards in Utah, tied them up and took control of the transport van, U.S. Marshals said.
The Barksdales then allegedly drove the van to northeast Arizona, where they abandoned it, with the guards still “tied up in the van,” according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
The guards needed time to get free from the van, which gave the Barksdales “a six or seven hour head start,” the service said in a statement.
The couple is wanted in connection to the murder of Frank Bligh, who vanished when his Arizona home burned down on April 16.
They allegedly fled to upstate New York in May, where U.S. Marshals and a SWAT team surrounded their RV and took them into custody. They are wanted on charges first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, arson of an occupied structure, theft of means of transportation, criminal damage and prohibited possession.
Federal authorities are offering up to $20,000 for information leading to their arrests.
Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.