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Pa. mental hospital escapee captured

1 min read

DERRY – State police say they’ve captured an assault suspect a day after he climbed a fence to escape from a western Pennsylvania mental hospital.

Troopers from the Greensburg barracks say 21-year-old Steven Michael Barron ran into the woods next to Torrance State Hospital in Derry Township after escaping shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Barron was captured about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, though police did not say in a news release Thursday how or where that happened and a barracks spokesman didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

Barron had been court-committed to the facility and was known to be volatile and proficient with knives.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Barron, of Crabtree, a small village about 15 miles west of the mental hospital. He remained jailed Thursday on an escape charge, awaiting a preliminary hearing July 17.

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