Public involvement
Sometimes, police departments conducting manhunts will solicit help from the public in locating the suspect. They will do this by broadcasting a description and other information on television, radio, and other public media, by going door to door and asking individuals if they have seen the suspect, and by placing wanted posters in public places.
When this happens, citizens are advised not to personally confront the suspect, but rather to call police and report their sightings.
One type of manhunt for which public participation is normally sought is an AMBER Alert. In an Amber Alert, the main purpose of the mission is to rescue the victim, ahead of the capture of the suspect. The public is usually given notice of an Amber Alert through additional forms of media, including highway overhead signs and text messaging.
If anyone is found aiding the suspect in any way, such as helping the suspect in hiding, or providing false information to the police about the suspect, may face legal consequences themselves, even being charged for the same crime as the suspect.
A fugitive or runaway is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known as a wanted person, can be a person who is either convicted or accused of a crime and hiding from law enforcement in the state or taking refuge in a different country in order to avoid arrest.
Donald Eugene Webb was an American career criminal wanted for attempted burglary and the murder of police chief Gregory Adams in the small town of Saxonburg, Pennsylvania on December 4, 1980. It was only the second murder in the town's nearly 150-year history; the first murder occurred in 1842.
Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeiee was an al-Qaeda terrorist, sentenced to death in 2004 by a Yemeni court for his part in the 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg. Al-Rabeiee escaped custody in February 2006, with 22 other inmates, but was killed 1 October 2006 in San‘a’, along with another al-Qaeda suspect identified as Mohammed Daylami.
Richard Allensworth Jewell was an American security guard and law enforcement officer who alerted police during the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He discovered a backpack containing three pipe bombs on the park grounds and helped evacuate the area before the bomb exploded, saving many people from injury or death. For months afterward he was suspected of planting the bomb, resulting in adverse publicity that "came to symbolize the excesses of law enforcement and the news media".
The FBI Seeking Terror Information list is the third major "wanted" list to have been created by the United States Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Investigation to be used as a primary tool for publicly identifying and tracking down suspected terrorists operating against United States nationals at home and abroad. The first preceding list for this purpose was the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. In 2001, after the September 11 attacks, that list was supplanted by the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list, for the purpose of listing fugitives who are specifically wanted for acts of terrorism.
"Manhunt" is the second season premiere episode of the American television series Prison Break and the twenty-third episode overall. The episode was first aired on August 21, 2006 in the United States. It is written by series creator Paul Scheuring and directed by Kevin Hooks, who directed the season finale of season one, "Flight". William Fichtner is introduced as a new regular cast member, whose character is assigned to track down the eight escapees from Fox River State Penitentiary. The role of Terrence Steadman was recast to Jeff Perry, who replaces John Billingsley as the brother of Caroline Reynolds.
Ralph James "Bucky" Phillips is a convicted murderer from Western New York arrested on September 8, 2006, by the Pennsylvania State Police. A warrant was issued for his arrest following the shooting of three New York State troopers, one of whom died from his wounds.
Jorge Alberto López Orozco, is a Mexican former fugitive. He was wanted for the murder of his girlfriend and her two children and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in Elmore County, Idaho. On March 17, 2005, he became the 480th fugitive listed by the FBI placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Alexis Flores is a Honduran fugitive wanted for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of five-year-old Iriana DeJesus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, in 2000. Flores is the 487th fugitive to be placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
In June 1962, inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, California, United States. Late on the night of June 11 or early morning of June 12, the three men tucked papier-mâché model heads resembling their own likenesses into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via ventilation ducts and an unguarded utility corridor, and departed the island aboard an improvised inflatable raft to an uncertain fate. A fourth conspirator, Allen West, failed in his escape attempt and remained on the island.
Reverse 911 is a public safety communications technology used by public safety organizations in Canada and the United States to communicate with groups of people in a defined geographic area. The system uses a database of telephone numbers and associated addresses, which, when tied into geographic information systems (GIS), can be used to deliver recorded emergency notifications to a selected set of telephone service subscribers.
On or about the afternoon of August 3, 2013, 16-year-old Hannah Marie Anderson was abducted after cheerleading practice from Sweetwater High School in National City, California. The suspect was later identified by authorities as 40-year-old Jim Lee DiMaggio, owner of a home in Boulevard, California, about an hour away, where Anderson, her mother Christina and brother Ethan had been overnight guests the previous evening.
The Hunt with John Walsh is an American investigation/documentary series that debuted on CNN on July 13, 2014. The series is hosted by John Walsh. The second season premiered on July 12, 2015, and the third season premiered on June 19, 2016. The fourth season premiered on CNN's sister station, HLN, on July 23, 2017. A successor to the show, In Pursuit with John Walsh was announced in early 2018. It premiered in January 2019 on Investigation Discovery.
Eric Matthew Frein is an American domestic terrorist and murderer, convicted and sentenced to death for the 2014 Pennsylvania State Police barracks attack in which he shot and killed one State Trooper, and seriously injured another. A letter to his parents made it clear that he hoped to spark a revolution by his actions.
On September 12, 2014, during a shift change at the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Blooming Grove Township, two state troopers were shot with a .308 caliber rifle. One trooper died at the scene and another was taken to a hospital where he recovered. Eric Frein was identified by the police as the only suspect in the case, and led the police on a weeks-long manhunt. He was eventually captured at an abandoned airport hangar on October 30, and charged with terrorism, murder, and attempted murder. Frein was convicted of all charges in April 2017, and subsequently sentenced to death.
Eugene K. Palmer is an American fugitive wanted for allegedly killing his daughter-in-law, Tammy Palmer, in Stony Point, New York, on September 24, 2012. On May 29, 2019, he was named by the FBI as the 523rd fugitive to be placed on its Ten Most Wanted list. On July 20, 2022, he was removed from the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives List. Despite his removal from the Top Ten List, he remains a highly wanted fugitive, and has an international Interpol warrant issued against him.
The Gilboa Prison break was a security event in Israel which occurred on 6 September 2021, when six Palestinian prisoners escaped from Gilboa Prison, a maximum security prison in northern Israel, through a tunnel.
Gonzalo Artemio Lopez was an American fugitive, mass murderer, and prison escapee who killed a total of six people in separate murders in 2005 and 2022. In 2005, Lopez kidnapped and murdered a man in Weslaco, Texas. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. In May 2022, Lopez received international attention when he escaped from prison custody by assaulting a corrections officer and fleeing from a prison bus. He became a wanted fugitive and evaded authorities for three weeks. On June 2, Lopez broke into a ranch and murdered five people from the same family, including three children, before stealing weapons and a pickup truck. Later that same day, police spotted Lopez and engaged in a shootout with him after a high-speed chase, where he was fatally shot during the exchange of gunfire.
On April 28, 2023, a mass shooting occurred northwest of Cleveland in San Jacinto County, Texas, United States, resulting in the deaths of five people, including a nine-year-old boy. The alleged perpetrator was a neighbor, who was captured on May 2 after a four-day manhunt.
