Two men face charges after Southeast Missouri jail escape

KENNETT, Mo. -- Two Missouri men are facing the Class D felony of attempt to escape confinement after trying to escape from the Dunklin County Justice Center over the weekend, the Daily Dunklin Democrat newspaper reported.

According to the Dunklin County Prosecutors Office, Matthew Banks, 28, and Keith Eaves, 22, escaped from the Dunklin County Jail at approximately 3:30 p.m. Friday by going under the recreational area fence and climbing over the outer-perimeter fence.

Assistant Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Jonce Chidister said both individuals were captured Friday afternoon.

Banks, who was being held on an attempt to manufacture methamphetamine charge from July 30, was picked up on Astrachan Drive. Eaves, who was being held for burglary in the second degree from June 27, was later located in the 900 block of Osborn Avenue, after he ran inside a house trying to hide from the authorities.

Both men are being held on $50,000 cash-only bonds for the attempted escape.

This event is at least the second time in just over two years that an inmate has used the recreational area to escape, as Dewey Hopper Jr., a 42-year-old Cardwell, Mo., man charged with rape, escaped the jail in June 2008, also by crawling under the chain link fence in the recreational area. Hopper was later captured at Cardwell.

Rod Hargrove, director of the Dunklin County Justice Center, said the jail is in talks to prevent future escapes from the recreational area.

"The escape happened through the outdoor [recreational] area," Hargrove said. "We have closed that area off. We are talking with different contractors [and] we have different ideas on how to prevent that from ever happening again."