Two offenders who escaped Thursday night from the Catawba Correctional Center in Newton were captured around 12:30 p.m. today without incident at the Baymont by Wyndham hotel in nearby Hickory.

Minimum custody offenders Nhia Vue (#1093002) and Juan McDonald (#1132541) will face escape charges.

Vue, 28, was serving a seven-year, nine-month sentence for drug trafficking and had been scheduled for release on April 24, 2025. McDonald, 35, was serving a three-year, five-month sentence for speeding to elude arrest and had been scheduled for release on Nov. 6, 2020.

The two escapees were captured in a hotel room by members of the Division of Prisons’ Emergency Response Team and K-9 units, and the Hickory Police Department, who also took two other individuals who were in the hotel room into custody.

Also assisting in the search were law enforcement officers from the Newton and Long View police departments and the Catawba and Burke county sheriff’s offices. The Department of Public Safety is investigating the circumstances surrounding the escapes.

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