ORANGE COUNTY, N.C. — Authorities across the state of North Carolina are searching for a convicted killer and escapee, Ramone Alston.
Alston escaped from police custody in Orange County on the morning of Aug. 13.
A $35,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to his capture.
Below, we answer your pressing questions about Alston.
The Escape
Alston was on his way from Bertie Correctional Institution custody while heading to UNC Gastroenterology in Hillsborough to receive medical care.
The sheriff's office said Ramone Alston freed himself around 7 a.m. Tuesday from leg restraints — which Orange County Sheriff Blackwood later said were designed to put pressure against the Achilles tendon to hinder movement — jumped out of the transport van at the UNC Hospital and ran into the woods.
Keith Acree, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, said Alston pushed at least one of the officers out of the way as he exited the vehicle.
“As soon as he put his foot on the ground, he took off running,” Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference with the Department of Corrections.
Acree said Alston was in medium custody and that his level of restraint, along with having two corrections officers with him, were standard for this type of transport.
Blackwood also said that while corrections officers carry guns, the protocol is to put them in lock boxes while transporting prisoners. The corrections officers moving Alston followed that protocol, according to Blackwood.
Alston was last seen wearing a gray tee shirt, brown pants, and white New Balance shoes. He also wore handcuffs connected to a belly chain with a black box over the junction. He has "FLAME" tattooed on him with a star in the center, as well as "NIECE" on his right arm.
Why was he taken to a hospital an hour away?
"There's two reasons for that. One, is he had received care here before and this was a follow-up appointment to see the same providers he had seen before. The second part of that is, we have contractual arrangements with different medical hospitals and different medical care providers to provide certain types of care. UNC Hospitals provides for us a wide variety of specialty services and they happen to do that for us here in Hillsborough," said an official with the NC Department of Adult Correction.
What was he arrested for?
Alston was sentenced to life in prison back in 2018. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and discharging a weapon inside an occupied building in Chapel Hill, killing 1-year-old Maleah Williams.
What are his ties to the Triad area?
Officials said that Alston is an Orange County resident and was before he went to prison.
They said he is likely to stay in Orange County or head to Alamance County
Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said Alston's girlfriend lives in Alamance County and officials have been warned to be on the lookout.
They went to her home and were able to look around but did not find him.
Deputies said they tried to look at her phone, and she wouldn't give them access, leading them to suspect they'd been in contact.
The Search
In a press conference, deputies discussed their strategies for finding Alston over the past day.
“Since he left the hospital, everything indicates a northern push,” Blackwood said.
After 24 hours of searching, authorities believe Alston could be north of the Hillsborough hospital. “K-9 tracks led us north of the hospital in that area, then ran cold,” Orange County Emergency Services Director Kirby Saunders said in a press conference Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday evening, Orange Co. Emergency Services Director, Saunders said the search party consisted of 114 people actively searching an area of 580 acres.
He said their primary focus at the time was to “reassure the community that it’s not an active, emergent threat to their lives or their community or their neighborhood.”
Part of the Wednesday search efforts were in the areas of Walter Clark Drive and George Anderson Drive in Hillsborough.