Escape from Warren County Prison: Timeline of Michael Burham case

Michael C. Burham's notoriety exploded nationwide when he escaped from the Warren County Prison on July 6 using a rope made of bedsheets.

The events that led the 34-year-old Burham to be in the prison originated months earlier and include another massive manhunt. This timeline is based on court records and other public information related to Burham.

∎ May 11 — At about 4:30 a.m., police in Jamestown, New York, respond to a report of an unresponsive woman in the first block of William Street. Kala Hodgkin, 34, is found fatally shot.

Moments later, police respond to a vehicle set on fire in the 100 block of Fulton Street. The vehicle belongs to Burham's ex-girlfriend. Police say Burham tried to break into her residence before setting the vehicle on fire — events captured on Ring doorbell video.

Police also want Burham for questioning in the death of Hodgkin and in the fire. At the time, he was wanted a charge that he raped Hodgkin in a previous incident. Burham has yet to be charged in the homicide.

∎ Also on May 11, Burham returns a rental car to a rental agency in Warren, south of Jamestown, and checks out of a hotel in Warren. Burham rented the vehicle sometime before May 11, and investigators say the rented vehicle is believed to be the same vehicle as the one seen in the vicinity of Hodgkin's killing and the incidents involving Burham's former girlfriend.

Police say Burham's last known address is in Ashville, New York, west of Jamestown. Burham also had owned property in Russell, Pennsylvania, north of Warren. The city of Warren is about 66 miles southeast of Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania.

∎ May 20 — A woman contacts the Pennsylvania State Police and says she is concerned that her parents did not attend their granddaughter's soccer game in Warren earlier that day. The caller says she did not find her parents at their house in Sheffield, southeast of Warren, and she says their Honda SUV is missing from their house. Police send out an alert for the couple, who are 89 and 68 years old.

∎ May 21 — The couple is found alive in a cemetery in North Charleston, South Carolina. They tell police that Burham kidnapped them at gunpoint at their house in Sheffield and forced them to drive to South Carolina with him in their SUV.

The Pennsylvania State Police in Warren charge Burham with 26 counts, including burglary, aggravated assault, burglary and trespassing. He remains at large.

∎ May 22 — The FBI in Buffalo charges Burham with the federal count of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, which allows the FBI to get involved in the multi-state manhunt for him. Burham is accused of fleeing New York to avoid prosecution.

∎ May 24 — With help from other law enforcement agencies, the FBI arrests Burham on May 24 northeast of New Charleston in Huger, South Carolina, in the Francis Marion National Forest. The authorities credit a resident of Berkeley County, South Carolina, of spotting Burham near his house and calling 911, according to the FBI. The FBI says law enforcement agencies used K-9 dogs to track Burham, and he was arrested without incident.

∎ May 25 — Burham appears before a U.S. Magistrate Judge Molly H. Cherry in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, on the fugitive-from-justice charge. She orders the case transferred to federal court in Buffalo.

∎ June 14 — After getting transported to New York, Burham appears before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Schroeder Jr. in federal court in Buffalo. At the request of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Schroeder dismisses the fugitive-from-justice charge, which releases Burham for prosecution on the charges in Warren and Jamestown, New York. Burham remains in custody as he is transported to Pennsylvania.

∎ June 19 — Burham appears before Warren District Judge Raymond Zydonik, who arraigns him on the kidnapping charges and other counts related to couple from Sheffield. Zydonik orders Burham held in the Warren County Prison on $1 million bond.

∎ July 6 — Burham escapes from the Warren County Prison at about 11:26 p.m. Surveillance video shows that he was in the exercise yard, on the top floor of the prison, and got out by climbing on to a pullup machine, climbing on to the roof and using a bedsheets tied together to slide off the roof and on to a portico and then jumping from the portico to the street. Warren police detail the escape in the criminal complaint filed against him on July 7, charging him with escape.

Burham is last seen wearing a prison-issued denim jacket, an orange-striped jumpsuit and orange Croc-style shoes. He is 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds, has brown hair and brown eyes and has a tattoo of a tiger on his right arm.

Investigators later say they are investigating reports that a drone might have been seen in the area of the prison when Burham escaped.

∎ July 6-7 — The multi-agency search for Burham begins, with the Pennsylvania State Police leading the effort. The search extends into into the 514,029-acre Allegheny National Forest, which borders the city of Warren.

The city of Warren police file a felony escape charge against Burham on July 7.

Burham is a "self-taught survivalist with military training," state police say in a news release. "He is to be considered armed and dangerous and we are asking the public not to approach."

Joining the Pennsylvania State Police in the search are the U.S. Marshals Service, the city of Warren police, Warren County Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Border Patrol, Warren County sheriff, Chautauqua County sheriff, Jamestown Police, Bradford police and the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

∎ July 15 — Burham is arrested at about 5:50 p.m. near Logan Road in Conewango Township, about 6 miles northwest of the city of Warren.

The search for him in that area started at 3:57 p.m., when the Pennsylvania State Police's tip line received a call from some residents on Jackson Run Road in Conewango Township about a suspicious individual.

State police said the tip came from a Warren County resident, who, while checking to see why his dog was barking at the rear of his property, encountered Burham.

Authorities mobilized resources, including a significant number of personnel on the ground, aviation assets and K-9s, and formed a large perimeter around that area.

State police said Burham was tracked through the woods and attempted to hide when he approached perimeter troopers near Logan Road. Burham was approached from behind by members of the U.S. Marshals Service, the Border Patrol and state police.

Burham was not armed when he was apprehended and characterized him as looking "tired and worn out," and wearing his prison pants inside out, Lt. Col. George Bivens, the state police's deputy commissioner of operations, said at a news conference following the arrest.

Burham was placed in the Erie County Prison. He will eventually be arraigned on the escape charge before a magistrate in Warren County.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: On the run: Timeline of Michael Burham's escape from prison