Body of Bradley Gillespie, escaped inmate, pulled from Ohio River

But on Sunday, a Kentucky police department said a call from a boater had sent officials to the Ohio River, where Gillespie’s body was found floating in the water.

“We’re glad to have closure to this situation in this event,” Henderson Police Department Chief Sean McKinney said during a news conference. “However, I do not feel it is appropriate to celebrate death of any life at this time.”

The discovery of Gillespie’s body marked the end of search efforts that had pulled in 16 state and federal law enforcement agencies — an operation that began May 23 after officials at the Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio, realized two inmates were missing.

Around 11 a.m. that Tuesday, 50-year-old Gillespie and 47-year-old James Lee were nowhere to be found when a warden ordered an emergency head count, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said in a news release. The agency said the two men had been last captured by surveillance footage inside the facility at 8:41 a.m. the day before.

Gillespie, who was convicted of two counts of murder in 2016, was serving two consecutive sentences of 15 years to life. Lee was convicted in 2021 of burglary and safecracking and wasn’t expected to be released until 2041. The two fled the prison by “concealing themselves in a dumpster,” according to the state corrections department. The exact timing of their escape is unclear, with authorities identifying a 27-hour window between Monday morning and Tuesday morning.

On Wednesday, the Ohio Highway Patrol, the United States Marshals Service and the Allen County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office posted a $21,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Gillespie and Lee. That same day, officers said they spotted Gillespie and Lee in a stolen red Mercury Capri in Henderson, Ky. — a town some 275 miles southwest of Lima.

Officers said they attempted to pull them over, but a chase ensued. Eventually, the car crashed, and the two men fled on foot, police said. Lee was then apprehended by authorities. Gillespie remained at large, though he was believed to be injured, McKinney said.

Over the next three days, McKinney said, the manhunt for Gillespie focused on the small northwestern Kentucky town, which borders the banks of the Ohio River. Although McKinney said authorities “turned over every stone,” no one could find the 50-year-old father until Sunday.

Gillespie’s body will undergo an autopsy on Tuesday, though the levels of decomposition suggest it was underwater for four to five days, McKinney added.

Gillespie’s escape sparked an internal investigation at the prison that seeks to uncover why there was a more than 24-hour time frame between when the two inmates were last seen and when officials noticed they were gone. So far, three corrections officers and one major have been placed on paid administrative leave, the corrections department said in a news release Friday.

For Gillespie’s daughter Shayde, who is 23, the incident has left more questions than answers.

“If the prison wasn’t so negligent, my dad would still be there, and I wouldn’t be currently planning my father’s funeral,” she told The Washington Post.

She said the pain of losing a father who had a passion for art and “absolutely loved doing magic tricks” is compounded by how she and her family learned of Gillespie’s disappearance and eventual death: mostly through Facebook posts.

Shayde said she found out about her father’s escape through a news story posted on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon. Five days later, the same thing happened when a local news station reported that Gillespie’s body was believed to have been pulled out of the river.

“As a family, we were all freaking out because a little bit after we’d seen that, Henderson [police] posted they were having a news conference on Bradley Gillespie at 4 p.m.,” Shayde said. Her aunt, she added, called authorities at 3:15 p.m. Sunday and was told that tattoos on the body matched Gillespie’s. Some 42 minutes later, Shayde said, police called, asking for photos of him. The prison gave her “actual confirmation” of his death on Monday at 6:33 p.m., she said.

The Henderson Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday night.

While Shayde said her father had petty theft charges in the past, she believes he was innocent of the double murder that put him behind bars in 2016. During the trial, Gillespie’s attorney argued there was no evidence linking him to either killing, and an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation testified that Gillespie’s DNA hadn’t been found on the bodies. A jury, however, delivered a guilty verdict after deliberating for three hours, the Bryan Times reported.

Shayde said she believes her father might have escaped because of his distress about the verdict.

“He had constantly said he didn’t want to die in prison for something he didn’t do,” she said. “Sadly, it had to have the outcome it did.”