PARCHMAN - Law enforcement agencies in the Mississippi Delta were still searching this morning for a prisoner who escaped from the state prison at Parchman.
Mississippi Department of Corrections officials said inmate Larry Hentz was discovered missing about 9:45 a.m. Monday. Officials said two holes were found in a fence at Unit 24-B, where Hentz was housed.
Hentz, 54, was serving life without parole for crimes including burglary dating back 20 years.
He was convicted of murder in Tate County in 1983 and sentenced to more than 88 years in prison, Corrections Department records show.
The conviction stemmed from a murder-for-hire killing, according to Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks, whose office was alerted about the escape.
"A woman paid him to kill her husband, and he burned the house up," Banks said. "It looks like the woman got the death penalty."
Banks said Hentz is from Tallahatchie County, and authorities had set up roadblocks along and around U.S. 49 there and in Coahoma County.
Hentz is described as a white male with green eyes and dark hair, who is 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs about 250 pounds.
MDOC officials said Hentz is considered dangerous.
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