COVINGTON, La. (RNS) — An Alabama woman used the spine of a Bible to conceal several hacksaw blades that helped her husband and three other inmates escape a maximum-security prison.
Claudia Buras was booked into the St. Tammany Parish jail on one count of introducing contraband into a penal institution and one count of assisting escape. Both are felonies, each carrying a maximum sentence of five years behind bars.
When Buras, 24, of Irvington, Ala., came to the jail to visit her ex-husband, murder suspect Eric Buras, she smuggled the hacksaw blades to him by delivering the Bible, Sheriff Jack Strain said.
She had peeled off the Bible’s spine and then glued it back with the 6- to 6 1/2-inch blades inside, investigators said.
After she left, Eric Buras was strip searched, but the Bible was never inspected, Strain said.
“Our deputies would not have dismantled the Bible,” the sheriff added.
Three other men accused of involvement in various murders escaped with Buras in the jailbreak. Three of the escapees were caught within hours; a fourth eluded authorities for just over two days.