Search continues for escaped inmate accused of rape

Anael Castro-Hernandez
Anael Castro-Hernandez

Officials are still searching for an inmate who escaped Monday morning on his way to a hearing at the Pulaski County Courthouse.

Anael Castro-Hernandez, 30, was last seen Monday running south on Center Street, and a shirt he was wearing was found at Sixth and Scott streets. Arkansas State Police searched the wooded area west of Interstate Park in Little Rock by helicopter, while K-9 officers searched the park on foot.

Pulaski County sheriff’s office Lt. Carl Minden said Thursday that officials don’t have any leads on Castro-Hernandez’s whereabouts at this time.

The sheriff’s office is working with the U.S. Marshals Service to find Castro-Hernandez, Minden said.

Castro-Hernandez has been deported four times and twice convicted of illegal re-entry, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Wednesday. He's accused of sexually assaulting three girls ages 14, 13 and 10, and was arrested in May 2013 on accusations he repeatedly had sex with a 10-year-old girl, the Democrat-Gazette reported then.

Castro-Hernandez is a 5-foot-1, 118-pound Honduran man with shoulder-length hair. County officials said he has been known to hop freight trains to avoid law enforcement.

Minden said tips can be reported to the sheriff’s office’s 24-hour communications line at (501) 340-6963, or anonymous tips can be reported to (501) 340-8477.

The U.S. Marshals office in Little Rock was not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon.

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