Prison officials still baffled how inmate escaped

Monday, Aug. 29, 2005 | 11:11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State prison officials said today they still don't know how inmate Jody Thompson escaped from the Northern Nevada Correctional Center Friday and he is still at large.

Thompson, considered dangerous, may be in Southern Nevada. Officials said he telephoned his mother in Pahrump and law enforcement authorities in Clark and Nye counties have been alerted. Thompson, 24, was serving 10-50 years for robbery, use of a deadly weapon and grand larceny from Nye County. He was classified as a medium security risk.

Two dental assistants at the prison in Carson City have been fired. And one correctional officer and an employee in prison industries have been placed on administrative leave pending investigation.

Ana Kastner, 42 a dental assistant at the prison, allegedly furnished Thompson a cell phone that helped in the escape. She has been arrested and charged with aiding in the escape of Thompson. Prison officials said she may have had a "romantic attachment" to Thompson, who formerly worked in the medical unit.

Tanner Kendrick, 27, a recent parolee, and Michael Schott Woolf, 43, a former inmate, are being questioned in Reno and are under investigation for allegedly aiding in the escape.

This was the first escape from prison industries is more than 18 years and the first from the prison system in more than two years.

Jackie Crawford, director of the state Department of Corrections, said "Thompson is not a nice guy. He terrorized Nye and Clark County for some time."

Thompson hid in a prison truck that was taking furniture from the prison industries program to the prison in Lovelock. Officials said they don't know how he was undetected -- the trucks are supposed to be searched.

Once in the truck, Thompson broke open a toolbox, got a hammer and pounded a hole through the floor of the vehicle. He then reached the outside and opened the back door while the truck was stopped in Fallon.