Michigan to probe how convicted killer escaped prison

(Reuters) - Michigan's attorney general on Friday launched an investigation into how a convicted murderer escaped from a state prison and kidnapped a woman whom he forced to drive to Indiana, Governor Rick Snyder said. The prisoner, Michael David Elliot, was captured Monday, a day after escaping through perimeter fencing at the Ionia Correctional Facility in central Michigan. "We must have an exhaustive investigation into the circumstances that led to this incident and take whatever appropriate action may be necessary to prevent future occurrences," Snyder said in a news release. At the time of his escape, Elliot was serving four life sentences for multiple 1993 murders, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. The department has conducted its own investigation of Elliot's breakout and has taken corrective steps at Ionia and other facilities, spokesman Russ Marlan said. The woman Elliott abducted and forced to drive to Indiana slipped free of him, before Elliot was apprehended after a chase through a rural area of LaPorte County, just across Michigan's southern border, about 65 miles east of Chicago. (Reporting By Kevin Murphy in Kansas City; Editing by Scott Malone and Steve Orlofsky)