Dangerously deranged killer Christopher Lee Pray was recaptured on Friday, September 1, after an alert motorist called Oregon State Police to report a body floating in a pond along the state line with Washington. He had checked himself out of a psychiatric hospital two days before.
Killer stuck in mud
Christopher Lee Pray isn’t an ordinary aggravated murder suspect. The psychopathic killer was “shackled at the arms, legs and stomach” when he “escaped a psychiatric hospital in Oregon.”
Authorities have him back in custody after what reports are calling an “unusual rescue.” The 39-year-old “had been in custody and a patient at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem before his escape.”
It’s a good thing that Pray was “stuck in mud up to his armpits, about 75 feet from sturdy ground” because, by then, his shackles were gone. Paramedics arrived at the scene first because it was reported as a dead body in the pond.
#Portland
“An escaped inmate described as “extremely dangerous” has been captured after getting stuck in mud for 12 hours on Friday.
Christopher Lee Pray, 39, escaped custody from the Oregon State Hospital at about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday.” pic.twitter.com/p1OrDHXBNn— Shane B. Murphy (@shanermurph) September 2, 2023
If the killer had been mobile, they might have become his next victims. Portland Fire & Rescue relates that “the man had been stuck for about 12 hours in the muddy water in the northern part of the city near the Washington state line.”
They immediately “launched a rope and ladder operation” and took about an hour to get the man free, still not knowing he was a killer. They packed him into the ambulance for a ride to the hospital which was uneventful.
“The patient provided a fake name, however an observant hospital employee noticed he resembled Christopher Pray.” Once they made the connection, “hospital staff notified the Portland Police Bureau, who responded and confirmed his identity.”
A cold night
The hospital in Portland that the killer ended up at “is nearly an hour north from the facility Pray escaped from on Wednesday.” Weather reports note “temperatures in the area dipped down to 60 degrees Thursday evening into Friday as officials say he was stuck in the muddy water.”
Officials are still trying to figure out how he managed to make it that far. Somehow, he “managed to escape custody while fully restrained and fled the facility in a Dodge minivan.” That happened around 10:45 p.m. local time.
“At the time of his escape, he was fully restrained with leg shackles, a belly chain, handcuffs, and a restraint connecting all three together,” police explain. “He was wearing a white t-shirt, maroon sweatpants, and black rubber slippers.”
Christopher Lee Pray, an 'extremely dangerous' felon charged with attempted murder, made a daring escape from an Oregon mental hospital. He commandeered a staffer's car while in shackles and slippers during transport to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem. #EscapedConvict pic.twitter.com/bRbJFInKqs
— US-Crimes (@OfficialUScrime) September 1, 2023
Considered “extremely dangerous,” Pray was “in custody at the Multnomah County jail on several serious charges, including attempted aggravated murder, and had been transferred to the hospital on Wednesday.” The killer was crazy enough to elude capture with police hot on his tail.
The cops report he “eluded law enforcement southbound on Interstate 5. Law enforcement terminated the pursuit due to safety concerns and Pray was not apprehended.”
It’s not clear how the psycho killer managed to free himself from all that hardware but he did. If he hadn’t decided to go for a midnight swim, he probably would have made it into Canada by now.
