MACON, Ga. — It has been almost three days since four inmates at the Bibb County Jail — including an accused murderer — escaped from the Bibb County Jail in the early hours of Monday morning. On Wednesday, the search for the missing inmates continues.
Now, the reward for information that leads to the inmates' capture has been upped to $73,000 after various local and federal agencies have offered up rewards.
In an announcement at around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday evening, the FBI says they have chipped $25,000 into the reward pool. They are offering the reward to anybody who provides information that directly leads to the men's arrest.
The inmates – facing charges ranging from murder to drug trafficking – escaped at around 3 a.m. Monday.
The four men include 52-year-old Joey Fournier, 29-year-old Chavis Stokes, 25-year-old Marc K. Anderson and 37-year-old Johnifer Barnwell, according to the release.
According to the FBI, they are offering $25,000 in total. They are offering $10,000 for Barnwell but, for each of the other inmates, they have a $5,000 reward for information leading to their arrest.
This is on top of money from the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, Macon Regional Crime Stoppers and the U.S. Marshals Service.
The U.S. Marshals Service is also offering $5,000 for the arrest of each inmate, the Macon Regional Crime Stoppers are offering a $2,000 reward and the sheriff's office is offering $5,000 for each of the men.
At a Monday afternoon press conference, Bibb County Sheriff David Davis told reporters that there is a reward of $1,000 for information that leads to the arrest of each inmate. In total, it would be a $4,000 reward for all four of them at the time.
Davis acknowledged on Monday that this number would likely increase when federal partners like the FBI to chip into the reward pool. The sheriff's office increased their reward to $5,000 per inmate, too.
According to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office's timeline, they say a blue Dodge Challenger was in the parking lot of the jail where they were messing with the fence. They may have dropped off tools that were used in the escape, too.
Davis told reporters it happened at around 3:30 a.m., and it took deputies 2.5 hours — until 6 a.m. — for deputies to realize the escape happened. That's when deputies found a hole in the jail's fence.
RELATED: Timeline: Four inmates escape Bibb County jail. Why did it take so long to notify the public?
It took until 10:30 a.m., according to the Bibb County School District Police Department, for schools to be notified and another hour, just before 11:30 a.m. for the news media to be notified. Davis said it was because they were still in the process of piecing together what happened.
The inmates were in jail for an array of different crimes.
Fournier was arrested and charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend in early 2022 at a Barrington Hall home.
Anderson was in jail for Aggravated Assault. Stokes was arrested in a 2020 drug bust.
Barnwell was convicted earlier this month of Armed Fentanyl, Meth and Heroin Trafficking and was arrested by the U.S Marshals.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office told 13WMAZ in an email that all agencies involved in the search have received tips, and they are all following those leads.
With the increased reward, they hope that it leads to more people calling in with tips.
During the Monday afternoon press conference, Davis emphasized how there is someone, somewhere who knows where the escaped inmates are.
“Somebody that sees this tonight knows where these four people are,” Davis said. “And somebody is probably laughing at the T.V. set saying ‘They’ll never catch us. They’ll never catch us.’ We will catch them. They will come back to jail – it is just a matter of when.”
If you have any information, you can contact the Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.
There are also two hotlines with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office 478-310-4485 and 478-310-4502. Those two lines will be staffed for 24 hours.