Can Mountain Dew, cigarettes help find escaped Georgia inmate?
- Joey Fournier is one of four inmates who escaped a Georgia jail
- Duane 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' Chapman is aiding in the search
- Chapman: One inmate's soda, smoking habits could aid searchers
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(NewsNation) — What do Mountain Dew and Camel Blue cigarettes have in common?
They may be helpful in tracking down escaped Georgia inmate Joey Fournier, according to Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman. The former reality TV star is on the ground helping search for Fournier and three other men who escaped from a jail in Macon, Georgia, earlier this week.
“This is how you track him: He drinks a lot of Mountain Dew, I mean, like two six-packs a day. He smokes Camel Blue cigarettes, and he smokes them all the way down to nothing,” Chapman said of Fournier. “I am on this guy. … We’re going after this guy.”
Fournier, 52, was charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend Cynthia Berry by strangling her.
The other inmates who escaped from the Bibb County Detention Center in central Georgia early Monday are Marc Kerry Anderson, 24, who was being held for aggravated assault; Johnifer Dernard Barnwell, 37, who was being detained for the U.S. Marshals Service; and Chavis Demaryo Stokes, 29, who was held for firearm possession and drug trafficking.
The four men are considered dangerous.
Chapman said he’s also zeroing in on a hunting ground Fournier has been known to frequent.
“Right now, it’s archery season there, so he can blend in,” Chapman said Thursday on “CUOMO.”
Bibb County Sheriff’s deputies say surveillance video shows a blue Dodge Challenger pull up to the location, helping the men flee around 3 a.m. The footage also shows someone near the fence line tampering with it, and they appear to have left tools behind that aided the escape.
Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer said it’s “concerning” that the inmates reportedly used power tools to aid their escape. Local news reports show photos of a giant hole in a window that the inmates chiseled to make room for their escape.
“It’s horrible that the level of incompetence really mimics corruption, but I don’t think this was corruption,” Coffindaffer said. “There was not enough people on staff, combined with the fact that the people on staff were incompetent, I believe, in this situation.”
Georgia officials, along with the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Office, are conducting the search for these inmates.
Police are urging anyone with information about the escapees to call the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500.
NewsNation’s Evan Lambert and Liz Jassin contributed to this report.