OHP scales back search for prison escapee

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Authorities will scale back their search in southern Kansas for one of two men who escaped from an Oklahoma prison earlier this week. <br/><br/>The hunt for convicted killer Aaron Olsen

Friday, October 21st 2005, 6:24 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Authorities will scale back their search in southern Kansas for one of two men who escaped from an Oklahoma prison earlier this week.

The hunt for convicted killer Aaron Olsen will continue, but Lieutenant Patrick May of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol says troopers and state Department of Corrections officers will be returning to Oklahoma.

The 39-year-old Olsen and convicted rapist Pharon Johnson fled the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington on Sunday. They are accused of abducting a woman from the prison's parking lot and taking her away in her van before leaving her in a ditch in Oklahoma City.

The van was found Tuesday on Interstate 35 about four miles north of the Oklahoma border, near South Haven, Kansas.

Johnson was taken into custody late Wednesday in Midwest City after calling his family in Bethany on a pay phone outside a grocery store.

His relatives then called police and told them he was ready to surrender.