Deputies catch murder suspect who escaped from Macoupin County Jail
The Madison County man who escaped from the Macoupin County Jail on Easter night is back behind bars after about 24 hours of freedom.
William D. Kavanaugh, who was being held on a murder charge, was captured in Shipman, Illinois, by the Macoupin County Sheriff’s Office.
Kavanaugh, 35, escaped from the Macoupin County Jail at about 10 p.m. Sunday.
Macoupin County Sheriff Shawn Kahl said he received a phone call at 8:40 p.m. Monday from a person who he is familiar with who asked whether deputies were still looking for the man who escaped. “I told him we were. He believed he had just spoken to him. He described him and told me which direction he went,” Kahl said.
The tipster was able to point out the location where Kavanaugh was hiding.
“I got a hold of my guys,” Kahl said. “Nine of us met in the Shipman area, surrounded a trailer on Fourth Street, got on a loud speaker and gave him commands to come out.
“We were able to get him to come out peacefully,” Kahl said.
After getting the call at 8:40 p.m., sheriffs deputy were able to wrap up Kavanaugh’s arrest by 9:20 p.m., which included drive time, Kahl said.
Kavanaugh was inside the trailer with a female acquaintance.
Asked whether she was aware that Kavanaugh was wanted, Kahl said, “We are looking into it and there may be additional charge for anybody who may have helped him.”
Asked about how Kavanugh was able to escape the way he did, Kahl said everyone at the jail is astounded.
He said the closet crawl space and other spaces Kavanaugh crawled through to get to a window to make his escape are tiny and no one knows how he was able to navigate his way through..
A lock mechanism on a door was broken and no one realized it before Kavanaugh escaped, Kahl said. But, now all of that has been addressed, he said.
“My maintenance guy always uses a key. It’s unbeknownst to him how he was able to crawl through crawl spaces through the attic area to the south end of the jail and crawl through a window to escape,” Kahl said.
Kavanaugh and a Granite City woman are accused of going to a home in Woodburn, where a man was shot to death on New Year’s Eve in 2015. The murder charges against Kavanaugh and the woman were announced last summer.
Kahl said Kavanaugh was the first inmate to escape in the 31 years the building has been open.
The sheriff and members of his staff believe this escape was planned. “It was not something he thought about doing overnight. We are looking into everything and fixing all situations,” Kahl said.
Kahl said there were signs in the office area that employees noticed that made them think something wasn’t right, like ceiling tiles were moved. Deputies searched the building and when they looked at videos, they knew Kavanaugh was missing.
Shipman is about 15 miles away from the jail and Kahl said he believes Kavanaugh made the trip on foot.
“He had gotten rid of the jail clothes and was wearing the long johns that he is allowed to wear under his jail clothes,” Kahl said.
“This was one of the indicators when the individual called me that made me know the man he described was probably the man we were looking for,” Kahl said.
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 1:44 PM.
