‘Hide and go seek’ ends for convicted murderer in Dallas, Texas

York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant said today that following the re-arrest of a convicted murderer mistakenly released from the Moss Justice Center in Dallas, Tex., some changes may be in store for how inmates are released at the Moss Justice Center.

31-year-old Thomas Aaron Whitlock was released at 3 p.m. Monday from the York County Detention Center, but it wasn’t until authorities were arranging his transfer to a North Carolina prison that they realized he’d been released.

Bryant did not go into much detail surrounding the internal investigation into Whitlock’s release, but said that it was not a case of intentional wrongdoing.

Whitlock was convicted in 2009 of second degree murder in the death of a Charlotte woman, and it took authorities ten months to find him before he was discovered underneath a woman’s house in Dallas.

Whitlock will be returned to York County next week.

Sheriff Bryant’s full statement: [audio: 0302-Bryant-FullStatement.mp3]