Escapees captured in Staunton

Two inmates who walked off a work detail in Augusta County Wednesday morning were apprehended shortly after 5 p.m. in the City of Staunton.

Joshua R. Ansell, 28, and Shawn M. Barb, 36, were apprehended without incident. The Virginia Department of Corrections, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Conservation Police, ABC investigators, Augusta County Sheriff’s Office, Staunton Police, Harrisonburg Police, and Virginia State Police spent the afternoon searching on the ground and by air for the two missing inmates who escaped from a work release crew in Augusta County at around 10:25 a.m.

Virginia State Police Trooper S.A. Simmons was driving through the City of Staunton searching for the inmates, when a concerned citizen waved him down to say two men fitting the inmates’ descriptions were in an alley near Fisher Auto Parts on Statler Boulevard. Trooper Simmons immediately pulled into the alley and exited his patrol vehicle in an attempt to locate the inmates. Moments later the trooper spotted and confronted Ansell and Barb. The two men surrendered to the Trooper. A Conservation Police Officer assisted Trooper Simmons with placing the inmates under arrest.

The two inmates, who were still dressed in their denim blue pants with the orange stripe and white t-shirts, were turned over to the Department of Corrections.