Scott Remains On The Lam

WATER VALLEY – The trail may have gone cold in the month-long search for a prisoner who escaped from the Yalobusha County Detention Center, but the cash is still available for information that leads to the apprehension of Ewel William Scott. 

The Yalobusha County Crimestoppers is offering $500 for the information after Scott has eluded multiple law enforcement agencies during intense searches in Yalobusha, Grenada,  Tallahatchie and Panola counties. Scott, age 39 escaped from the jail on April 1, after a door that opens into the exercise yard was not shut. Scott was able to scale the razor-wire fence   that surrounds the yard, leaving a trail of blood. Shortly afterwards he allegedly stole a truck on County Road 436 and headed to Tallahatchie County. Two days later the pickup was spotted hidden in a barn about a half-mile from the railroad tracks in Enid. 

Since then the hunt has intensified multiple times after potential sightings in Tallahatchie, Panola and Grenada counties, but Scott has always been a step ahead of the law. Fulco said that deputies from sheriff’s departments from all four counties have been involved in the manhunts for Scott in addition to tracking K-9 teams from the Mississippi Department of Corrections, agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations, state troopers and officers with the Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. City officers from Batesville and Oxford and other departments have also assisted, as each time a sighting was reported the authorities would ramp up another search effort.

The effort has also included multiple tracking dogs from departments involved, high-tech drones fitted with night vision cameras and heat-seeking radar from the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department and helicopters.

The most intense search period during the last month occurred during the week April 7 – 10 with authorities hot on his trail in southeast Panola County as they pursued him across fields in an area near the Yocona River on Pope Crowder Road. Scott crossed the river several times that night to elude the tracking dogs.

“This guy just doesn’t want to be brought in and he is putting up a fight,” Panola County Sheriff Shane Phelps told the Panolian after the intense search. 

Fulco also said the sheriff’s department issued a BOLO (be on the lookout) for a maroon Ram pickup reported stolen late on April 20. The truck was last seen the morning of April 23 near Oakland One Stop and authorities speculated that Scott could have been involved.

The most recent potential sighting was reported in northern Grenada County near Pea Ridge community on April 23 after a man matching Scott’s description was seen running from the old Bethel Church. There was also evidence that somebody had been inside the church, cleaning out the pantry. 

“There is no doubt he is getting help from somebody,” Fulco told the Herald Monday. “But we also know he can live off the land.”

Scott is a white male with brown hair and blues and weighs around 120 pounds. He was incarcerated in the Yalobusha County Detention Center for felony taking of a motor vehicle. Scott has been arrested multiple times for theft and larceny and has never been charged with a violent crime.

Anyone with information about Scott, or his whereabouts, should contact their local sheriff’s office. The telephone numbers to call are: 662- 563-6230 (Panola), 662-473-2722 (Yalobusha), 662-647-3700 (Tallahatchie) or (662) 227-2877 (Grenada).