Sheldon, Iowa — The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office sent out a Nixle message on Friday evening, July 17th, that an inmate at the Iowa Department of Corrections Residential Treatment Facility — or RTF — had escaped. According to RTF Director Maureen Hansen, 21-year-old Tray Scott Ehlers remains at large.
She says Ehlers was serving a sentence for Third Degree Burglary and Third Degree Theft, both out of Plymouth County.
Ehlers is described as a six-foot tall white male with brown hair and blue eyes. He weighs about 197 pounds and has multiple tattoos. His date of birth is September 3rd, 1993. At the time of his escape, the Sioux County Communications center noted that he may be driving a tan 1999 Chevrolet Malibu with Iowa plate number DEB670.
Hansen says Ehlers is an inmate of the Iowa Department of Corrections, who had been in prison, but was granted parole. She says he violated his parole, so parole was revoked to work release. That means Ehlers worked during the day and stayed at the RTF at night.
She says, however that Ehlers did not escape while he was supposed to be at work. She says he was in the building and allegedly tore a screen in his room and left via the window. His absence was discovered during a routine hourly check on Friday night.
Hansen says an alert has been filed with the National Crime Information Center. She says that means that if a law enforcement officer finds him they can take him into custody and hold him without bond. She says if he’s found, there would probably be a request for transfer review, which means he may be sent to a more secure institution, such as back to prison.
