Teenage Murder Suspect Accused of Killing Mother and Sister Escapes From Jail

Luke Craig "is considered dangerous and a threat to public safety," the Kentucky State Police (KSP), who are assisting Lexington County officers with the manhunt, stated in a press release on Sunday. To that end, bystanders who sight Craig, a white male who weighs 130 pounds, stands 5-foot-5 tall, and was wearing a green jumpsuit and black sneakers at the time of his escape, should call 911 or contact KSP immediately at (800) 222-5555 rather than approaching him, according to the release.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that they are so rare, prison breaks frequently make the news. In 2018, the most recent year for which relevant data is available on German data compilation site Statista, 2,353 of the U.S. prison population's 1,465,200 prisoners escaped detention. In September 2020, 36-year-old Jessica Hanson escaped by posing as her own cellmate; she was apprehended half an hour after she was reported missing. In April 2021, Devonte Detuan Ross escaped when personnel transporting to the Georgia state prison stopped at a service station to buy him something to eat. In July 2021, 28-year-old Kane Quinn escaped by enlisting 28-year-old Lila Rosemary Walto to ram the prison van transporting him from Alexander Maconochie Centre Prison in Canberra, Australia to the hospital with a white Jeep.

Craig escaped from Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Lexington, Kentucky, at approximately 3:45 p.m. on Sunday, meaning he has been on the loose for roughly 12 hours. The detention center is a "secure facility that houses inmates...[who] may be awaiting trial or sentencing, or they may be serving a sentence after being convicted of a crime," according to CountyOffice.org, a database of government offices and public records sources. While the KSP press release did not provide details about Craig's escape, a Facebook post by the Lexington police department stated he "may be in the area of the Masterson Station neighborhood, the area between Georgetown Road, Leestown Road, Citation Boulevard, and Spurr Road."

Craig was evidently arrested and charged with two counts of murder—domestic violence around 2:30 a.m. on September 25, shortly after his mother, Tefani Noe, and sister, Brooke Goggin, were found shot to death on Corinth Road in the city of Lawrenceburg around 9:30 p.m. on September 24, according to The Lexington Herald-Leader. The teenager allegedly fled police in a car and managed to make his way through Anderson, Franklin, and Shelby Counties before he was eventually detained in Louisville around 11 p.m., according to the local news outlet WAVE.

Newsweek reached out to KSP for comment but did not immediately hear back.

In response to a similar request, Sergeant Donnell Gordon, a public information officer for the Lexington police department, wrote, "This incident is being investigated by the Kentucky State Police."

Craig was reportedly apprehended on Monday night.