BENT COUNTY — According to the U.S. Marshal District of Colorado, the body of fugitive Mark Fox was found in Otero County weeks after a Bent County Jail escape. Fox was the subject of a search by U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bent County Sheriff's Office.
The body was discovered in an unoccupied farmhouse near Colorado Highway 71 and Highway 10, about five miles south of Rocky Ford on Saturday afternoon.
As we've previously reported, 46-year-old Mark Fox and three other inmates escaped from the Bent County Jail on July 23, 2023 by tunneling through the sheetrock ceiling of their cell, which used to serve as a kitchen. From there the inmates were able to escape through the roof of an adjoining bathroom.
Authorities said two of the four inmates were caught and returned to custody two days later, on July 25th. A third escapee, Benjamin Valdez, was found dead in Pueblo that same day around 1:30 p.m. due to a possible drug overdose.
Fox managed to evade the authorities, leading to a Be On the Lookout being sent out to local law enforcement.
The U.S. Marshals and the FBI offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information regarding Fox's whereabouts.
On Saturday afternoon. the Otero County Sheriff's Office received a call from a former resident of the property that came across the body while returning to retrieve something.
Due to the state of the body's decomposition, the identity of the body wasn't immediately clear; however, authorities on the scene soon called in a forensic specialist from the FBI to assist with getting post-mortem fingerprints.
The cause of death is still unknown, but it is believed that Fox had been deceased for 2-3 weeks before being found.
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