Greene County man who escaped custody at St. Louis hospital apprehended

Tommy Boyd, a convicted felon from Greene County who hospital officials said slipped past two corrections officers on Thursday after being transferred from prison to Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis, didn’t escape for long.

The multi-agency manhunt ended around 8 p.m. Thursday night when police say Boyd, a sex offender serving a 30-year prison sentence for child enticement charges, was apprehended in St. Louis at the Kenrick Plaza Wal-Mart, roughly eight miles north of the hospital.

The search began shortly after Boyd, 45, was seen on surveillance walking through Mercy South without handcuffs around 4 a.m. near the Affton Southwest Precinct of the hospital. Mercy officials said the escape was without force and the Missouri Department of Corrections has not yet released any information on how the escape may have transpired.

Boyd, who is serving his prison sentence an hour south of St. Louis at Potosi Correctional Facility, was checked into the hospital for unknown reasons.

Boyd was sentenced in 2008 for a child enticement conviction after attempting sexually assault a 9-year-old boy in Springfield, not long after getting out of prison for a child sex crime. In 1997 he was convicted of statutory sodomy in Springfield involving an 11-year-old boy and was sentenced to 10 years.

Multiple St. Louis schools near the hospitals took precautionary measures during the manhunt by city, county and state officials, as well as help from the U.S. Marshals.

The St. Louis Police Department posted an additional photo of Boyd Thursday afternoon that he appeared to have taken during his escape and away from the hospital.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Greene County man apprehended after escaping custody in St. Louis