Murderer escapes from Pa. prison

The Erie man was
discovered missing Sunday.

ALBION, Pa. (AP) — A convicted murderer remained on the loose Monday after escaping from a medium-security prison close to the Ohio border in northwestern Pennsylvania.

A lockdown also continued at the State Correctional Institution-Albion as state police and correction officials investigated how the inmate was able to get free, authorities said.

Malcolm Kysor, 53, of Erie, was discovered missing when guards did a routine inmate count about 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Prison officials were investigating whether Kysor was involved in prison programs that would have let him off the grounds or given him access to less secure areas of the prison, said Sue McNaughton, a state Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

Kysor has been serving a life sentence since 1988 for an early 1980s murder in Erie County. He was moved to the prison in Albion in April.

The prison houses about 2,300 inmates and is located just outside downtown Albion, a small town about 20 miles southwest of Erie. Albion is about 10 miles northeast of Pierpont, Ohio, the border town where Kysor’s victim lived.

Kysor was convicted in January 1987 of first-degree murder in the beating death of Barney Fenton, 40.

He was arrested in June 1981 for drunken driving in Fenton’s car. Nearly a year later, Fenton’s remains were found buried along Interstate 79 near the Millcreek Mall just outside Erie.

Kysor, who is white, is about 5 feet 8 and 160 pounds. He has brown hair and eyes and several tattoos: a devil, heart and snake on his chest; a flower and eagle on his right arm; a rose with two hearts and a flower on his left arm; and a devil with a woman and an angel with a horse on his abdomen.

He had previously served time for receiving stolen property, police said.

Citizens were warned not to approach Kysor if they spotted him, and to contact police.

Kysor’s escape is the first by a convicted murderer at a state prison since 1999, when three inmates — including two convicted murderers — broke out of two state prisons within two weeks.

Convicted four-time killer Norman Johnston escaped from the Huntingdon state prison Aug. 2 that year and was free for nearly three weeks before he was captured peacefully about 25 miles west of Philadelphia.

Two cellmates broke out of the state prison in Dallas on Aug. 16, 1999. Michael McCloskey, imprisoned for murder, and Anthony Yang, serving time for arson, were captured four days later.

In both escapes, the inmates cut window bars and put handmade “dummies” in their beds to fool guards.