Cops catch notorious escapee 'buried in trash' after another prison break in wild drone footage

Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised

GRAYLING, MICHIGAN: Dramatic aerial footage captures the tense search for escaped Michigan inmate Casie Jo Helsel as a helicopter crew directs officers toward his hiding place beneath a heap of wood and debris.

Recorded on Monday, October 26, the dramatic video shows police teams combing the wilderness near the Grayling Country Club before closing in on Helsel.

The search ended with his arrest within hours of his escape from the Crawford County Jail.

Wild footage captures manhunt

At 1.30 pm on October 26, Crawford County authorities discovered that Casie Jo Helsel had escaped from jail and soon called in the Michigan State Police to help locate him.

He had reportedly ditched his orange jail uniform for a white T-shirt and shorts.

The search soon involved 'Trooper 3', a Michigan State Police helicopter equipped with forward-looking infrared technology.

The department later released stunning footage documenting the capture.

From above the tree cover, the crew spotted a heat signature beneath a heap of wood and brush.

What followed was a series of increasingly specific directions to officers approaching the spot on foot.

“You guys are surrounding him, good, everything’s looking good, about five, six feet,” one crew member says over the radio.

The operator then tells the officers they are nearly standing on top of the concealed heat source, visible beneath the pile through the thermal camera.

Helsel is described as “buried in there” as the team closes the remaining distance.

Moments later, the officers reach the hiding place and apprehend him. The helicopter crew’s final radio exchange confirms the outcome: “We got him. We got him.”

The video below shows Helsel in handcuffs right after his capture.

Casie Jo Helsel has a history of jailbreaks

Helsel’s history of fleeing authorities became a key detail in the search, with one member of the helicopter crew telling officers that the inmate had a habit of staying out of sight until nightfall.

“He’s ran on us several times and his modus operandi is to hunker down, whether it be in the water, under a dock or on a stream on the edge and just wait till night,” the team member said over the radio.

With Helsel reportedly known to remain concealed in difficult-to-search locations, the helicopter’s thermal camera gave the team another way to detect him beneath the woodland cover.

Officers on the ground, joined by K-9 units, followed directions from the aviation crew as the search narrowed to the brush-covered swamp.

The operator relayed their movements and helped guide them to the suspected location.

The search concluded at the Grayling Country Club, where Helsel was located in the swamp at 3.58 pm, according to information released during the operation.

The circumstances surrounding Helsel’s escape remain under investigation.

Sheriff Ryan Swope, while speaking to the media later, said that he might have used a door left open for people entering and leaving Crawford County Jail while transporting supplies.

Officials have said they do not think the entrance was deliberately left unsecured to help him get out.

Helsel’s record, meanwhile, stretches back more than two decades, according to online court records.

Previous cases include incidents related to illegal substances, obstruction of justice, unlawfully driving a motor vehicle and fleeing from police.