Authorities say two inmates accused of murder escaped a Monterey County jail over the weekend through a hole they made in a bathroom ceiling that’s in a blind spot from the guards.
Monterey County sheriff’s Capt. John Thornburg said Monday that 21-year-old Santos Fonseca and 20-year-old Jonathan Salazar climbed through the hole measuring about 8 inches tall and 22 inches wide, slipped into the walls of the county jail and made it outside Sunday.
Once inside the wall, the inmates climbed past ducts and pipes in a maintenance access area and were able to open a hatch and escape.
Thornburg says the outdoor area was covered in construction fencing, rather than security fencing with barbed wire, and the two could climb it to flee the jail grounds.
The Sheriff’s Office warned that the fugitives should be considered dangerous.
Fonseca is accused of killing two men in two different shootings in June 2018, and Salazar was arrested in the shooting death of man who was driving with his girlfriend and young son in October 2017, the Californian newspaper in Salinas reports