UPDATE: The two inmates who escaped from Beaver Creek are now back in police custody.
Jay Sedore and Michael Karas, who escaped from Beaver Creek Institution in Gravenhurst on Wednesday, were both housed in the minimum-security area that has no perimeter fence, said Mike Shrider, regional communications manager for Correctional Service Canada.
"It's not like they had to jump a fence. They just went unaccounted for at the evening count," Shrider said of the duo's disappearance.
He couldn't say whether the men are dangerous to the public, but said if they get caught, "they will be put back in higher security with some added time."
Sedore is 70 years old, and serving an indeterminate sentence for first-degree murder. He is 170 centimetres (five-foot-seven) in height and weighs 70 kilograms (155 pounds). He has a fair complexion, brown eyes and brown hair.
Sedore has been in custody for 34 years — since October 1991 — after a murder that took place in the Gravenhurst area in August 1990, said Shrider.
Karas is 68 years old and serving a 15-year, six-month, 10-day sentence for robbery, forcible confinement and use of an imitation firearm, said Shrider. He is 178 cm (five-foot-10) and weights 76 kg (178 pounds). He has a fair complexion, grey hair and brown eyes.
Karas's sentence started in December 2020. The offences took place in Toronto and Waterloo, said Shrider.
"Typically, if they have worked their way down to minimum (security), they would have been deemed to be more trustworthy, more responsible, a lower security threat," Shrider told OrilliaMatters.
Beaver Creek is a "clustered security facility" with a minimum-security site based on a residential design model consisting of small group accommodation houses and it also has a medium-security component.
The escapees "would have completed their school and their work. They are at a lower risk to the community and a lower risk to escape, but of course, you can't always predict that," Shrider added.
"We are collaborating with local police. We work with police as they do their own investigation and search."
He said the men were unaccounted for at the evening count Wednesday.
"On the minimum side, there is actually no perimeter fence and the inmates go in and out of the building for jobs around the institution. Most guys in minimum are working in the institution as cleaners or doing different programs. There are no farms at Beaver Creek, but there are farms at Joyceville and Collins Bay minimum-security institutions," Schrider explained.
"They are just expected to be back for the count times. There is a count in the morning, a count in the afternoon and a count in the evening. They were not accounted for at the evening count."
Anyone who has information on the whereabouts of Sedore or Karas is asked to contact OPP at 1-888-310-1122.
Correctional Service Canada will investigate the circumstances of this incident and is working with police to locate the offenders.
