CEDAR CITY, Mo. -- Police searched Friday for two dangerous women convicts serving life sentences for murder who escaped from the Renz Correctional Center along the Missouri River.
The women were identified as Lisa Harris, 21, whose last known address was in Webb City, and Marti Greer, 21, who last was known to live in Sikeston.
Harris was serving a sentence of life in prison without parole for first-degree murder. Greer was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.
Because of their offenses and the sentences they were serving, both women should be considered dangerous, said Bryan Goeke, superintendent of the prison. He said there was no evidence they were armed when they escaped but that the possibility could not be ruled out.
Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge said his office had been alerted to be on the lookout for Harris because she might return to the area in extreme southwestern Missouri.
'She was one of five people that participated in the most infamous homicide in the history of this county, the most brutal homicide I've ever seen in my career,' Doerge said. 'I consider her to be a very dangerous and desperate individual.'
The sheriff said Harris was 17 years old when she, another girl and three young men beat, bludgeoned and stabbed a man to death in 1987. The victim, John Hill, apparently had been involved with the other girl, and drugs also were involved in the incident, Doerge said.
All five of the killers were high-school students at the time of Hill's murder, and one was Harris's brother, Doerge said. He said the victim had been beaten with a hammer and clubs, and also had been stabbed numerous times after his death. During the trial of Harris and her accomplices, testimony showed the killers had been using a variety of drugs at the time of the murder.
Greer shot her boyfriend to death in September 1989 in New Madrid County, which is in the Bootheel region of southeastern Missouri, authorities said.
Renz, which is in Cedar City, houses about 315 female inmates. The search generally was centered on the area north of the prison, which sits on the north side of the Missouri River, about 3 miles north of Jefferson City.
Goeke said prison personnel, guard dogs, state troopers and local law enforcement officers were involved in the search.
'We don't really have a lead on which direction they might have gone,' the prison superintendent said.
The women apparently escaped sometime between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. Thursday, Goeke said. He said they were discovered missing about 9 p.m.
Prison officials found a tear or cut in a perimeter fence near the prison's recreation building, Goeke said. He said it appeared the inmates had cut through the fence.
