ANACONDA – The owners of a ranch north of Anaconda have found a pickup truck believed to be used by a Montana State Prison inmate to escape the Deer Lodge facility last month.
Anaconda police said the property owners spotted the blue, GMC flatbed truck on Saturday. The Montana Standard reports the truck was not obviously visible and parked away from the main road and house.
Steven Dale Robb, of Great Falls, fled the prison on April 19. Assistant Police Chief Bill Sather said the vehicle had a flat tire and was probably abandoned the same day Robb left the prison. Robb’s prison coat and work boots were found in the pickup, Sather told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
“The last time we had escapees, they parked in the same general area” and stole a car in Anaconda, Sather said. “But we don’t have anything like that right now.”
“We don’t know if he took off on foot or if he had help. There were no fresh tracks anywhere around there,” Sather said.
Robb was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a 1987 aggravated assault and burglary. He was paroled in 2005, but returned to prison in September 2010 after he was arrested for misdemeanor assault.
Robb is described as 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 180 pounds with brown hair and green eyes.