Northeast Oklahoma Correctional Center walkaway found dead

(VINITA, Okla.) UPDATE: Early Friday, correctional officers at Northeast Oklahoma Correctional Center discovered the body of walkaway Ricky Bauders. Officers found Bauders’ body behind an outdoor storage area on the edge of the minimum-security prison’s grounds. The building is near a hay field where ODOC K9 officers tracked him yesterday. ODOC investigators believe Bauders went to the storage area during a rainstorm overnight and took his own life. Both ODOC investigators and investigators with the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiners are working to determine the circumstances around Bauders’ death. ORIGINAL STORY: An inmate walked away from minimum-security Northeast Oklahoma Correctional Center on Tuesday. Facility security staff and Oklahoma Department of Corrections Office of Fugitive Apprehension and Investigations agents were searching for Ricky Bauders. He was last seen running west away from the prison around 6 p.m. Bauders, 52, is described as 5-feet 9-inches tall, weighing about 189 pounds. He was serving a four-year sentence out of Tulsa County for second-degree burglary. He is believed to still be in the area. The public should not approach Bauders or attempt to apprehend him. Anyone with information can call our escapee hotline at 866-363-1119 or email warrants@doc.ok.gov. All calls and emails are confidential.