Work-release inmate missing after Kentucky candle factory collapse in tornado returns to jail
The work-release inmate said he tried to turn himself back in after being treated at a hospital
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Police in Kentucky have recovered Francisco Starks, an incarcerated person on a work-release programme who was present inside the Mayfield candle factory decimated by recent tornadoes, before going unaccounted for following a visit to the hospital.
“Francisco Starks has turned himself in to the Calloway County Jail,” the Kentucky State Police announced on Monday.
Starks, who was in jail on charges of burglary, car theft, and receiving stolen property, asserts he never ran away. Instead, he says he got lost in the chaos of the tornadoes, which knocked out phone lines to prison officials and caused the Mayfield Consumer Products Factory to collapse, killing at least eight people.
"He had no idea what to do," his lawyer, Madison Leach told NBC News.
"Due to his injuries when he reached out to me I picked him [up] and took him to a jail in a nearby county for him to turn himself in."
The county inmate, 44, sustained injuries to his neck, back, and legs, and watched his supervisor die in the collapse. Starks’s lawyer argues the factory should have released workers sooner as historic storms bore down on the state.
"He is traumatised after watching the deputy pass away and sustaining injuries," she added. "He didn’t escape jail. He escaped death."
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The devastation in Mayfield, one of the towns hardest hit in the multi-state tornado cluster last weekend, is putting the factory under scrutiny.
Five workers alleged supervisors at the plant didn’t allow them to leave early and threatened them with firing if they did, which the company that oversees the facility denies. Kentucky State Police are now interviewing workers at the plant.The Independent has reached out to the Mayfield Consumer Products Factory for comment.
At least 88 people are dead after the tornado spree, with more likely to be uncovered in coming days.
“If there’s good news, it’s that our death count has not gone up since yesterday,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on Tuesday. “With this amount of damage and rubble, it may be a week or even more before we have a final count.”
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