With 13-year-old double-murder suspect back in custody, questions abound over his escape

Authorities are not saying much publicly about their handling of the boy and if there was an oversight that contributed to him being able to flee from custody.

On Thursday, his relatives recounted the moments when they were reunited with him -- albeit briefly.

It was Jericho Werrell.

"Something was just telling me to go home," his uncle, Wayne Lambert said Thursday. "That's he's coming to find me."

Lambert said the boy has always seen him as dad.

"First of all, we loved each other. We shed tears with each other, and I just sat down with him and I said, ‘I'm not gonna call anybody right now, baby,’" Lambert said. "I just want you to talk to me."

Jericho and his brother, Derrick Deshawn Hunt, were charged last October with killing the two brothers, Frank and Adam Thomas.

The 13-year-old, who had been scheduled to appear in court on two counts of first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon charges, escaped around noon Tuesday, according to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office. He was in the custody of the NC Department of Public Safety Transport Team at the time.

The boy fled from the scene with shackles still attached to his ankles but not wearing any shoes.

Lambert said Jericho was able to remove the shackles from his legs and had spent the night in the woods.

Wilkins says his deputies were not with Jericho in the holding room.

Matt Jenkins, the spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said in a written statement that state law prohibits disclosure of information from a juvenile record.

He offered no details on how the escape happened, but says it is under an internal review.

When Jericho showed up at his uncle's home, the boy was given something to eat and allowed to shower before federal marshals were called to the residence.

Said Lambert: "It hurt me."

Wilkins says his deputies were not with Jericho in the holding room.

'How would you feel if this were your child?' says uncle of missing 13-year-old double-murder suspect

He said while Jericho was in a holding room, he managed to slip his foot out of one of the shackles and bolt out of a back door, barefoot.

"All he was wanting to do was come home and tell his daddy what happened," Lambert said. "And that he didn't do it. And I believe him."

After Jericho was returned to custody, he was transferred by federal marshals Wednesday night to the Cumberland Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Fayetteville.

WRAL News cameras showed officials bringing Jericho to the detention center just before 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Lambert said the boy followed the railroad tracks after he escaped.

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“I just thank God that he came home to me and I was the one that could put my hands on him before the officials did or anybody else would hurt this child, because he’s not a very bad kid," Lambert said after the boy was found. "He’s a respectful child.

"When I seen him, I said, 'Baby, you know what we got to do.' He said, 'Daddy, I don’t want to go back.' I said, 'I know you don’t, baby, and daddy don’t want to take you back, but you’re going to have to go.' I said, 'Do you understand me?' He said, 'yes, sir.'

"He said 'Daddy, all I want you to do is feed me and let me take a shower,' and that’s what I did for him.”

Jericho’s mother said her son went to his grandmother's old home, which is abandoned, after he escaped.

She said he spent Tuesday night and all day Wednesday there. She also said he then found a bicycle somewhere in Pembroke and rode to his uncle's home. She said Jericho told her he waited until dark to come out of his grandmother's home before eventually arriving at his uncle's home.