Marysville jail prisoner escapes ... but isn't missed for two days?

MARYSVILLE -- An escaped prisoner is back behind bars but the commander of the Marysville jail will be taking some tough questions in the next few days about how the inmate simply walked out of the jail last week.

What's worse, no one knew he was missing for two days.

Rhyan Vasquez, 19, was considered a flight risk and a danger to the community.

He was taking part in a bible study class at the Marysville Jail when he saw an opportunity, slipped away from a guard, out the back door and disappeared.

For the next two days he was a free man.

"This is unacceptable. The public’s safety is or primary concern and we want our community to know, I take responsibility, my staff takes responsibility. An internal investigation is under way and we will find out what happened, why we didn’t know for so long and how it happened to begin with,” Marysville Jail Commander Wendy Wade said.

The jail discovered Vasquez was missing only after his attorney came to visit.



"First he sucker-punched me and then I turn over and he has a knife at me," said Daniel, who asked that he not be identified.

He said he was robbed and beaten on Smith Island, allegedly by Vasquez, a co-worker.

"He grabs my wallet out of my back pocket and then he's still pointing the knife at me, then he punches me in the lower jaw,” Daniel said.

That punch knocked Daniel unconscious.

When he came to, he had a broken jaw, a missing tooth and he was bleeding profusely.

"At this time we are reviewing our protocols and what happened and there will be discipline,” Wade said, alluding to Vasquez's walkabout from the jail.

Vasquez was arrested in Everett after his two days on the run.

The internal investigation is now a top priority, but Wade couldn’t say how long it will take.