Manhunt For Escaped Prisoner Enters Day 2 In Southern Ocean County

by Patricia A. Miller

Hundreds of police officers from a variety of agencies will again swarm the Southern Ocean County area in search of Arthur William Buckel, who escaped from Bayside State Prison on Tuesday morning.

"The best thing you can to is peacefully and voluntarily surrender," Mayor John J. Novak said during a Wednesday evening press conference. "You will be apprehended."

The search is now in its second day. Barnegat police also released photos of Buckel culled from a security cameras at CVS Wednesday morning. They also also released a photo of what Buckel would look like if he shaved his face.

Buckel, 38, who had been at Bayside State Prison after sentencing on a burglary conviction, is the same man convicted of slapping a 10-month-old Barnegat girl to death on Labor Day weekend in 1995, Hudson County court officials and the state Department of Corrections confirmed Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities say he stole a vehicle in Atlantic County and the vehicle was found at the CVS on West Bay Avenue Wednesday morning. Multiple K9 units are searching for the prisoner. They were hampered by heavy rain on Wednesday, police said.

Buckel is described as a white male, 5-foot-9 and weighing about 180 pounds.

Barnegat and Ocean Township (Waretown) schools will be open on Thursday. But if Buckel is not apprehended, officers will be present at schools for the entire day, according to the police departments' Facebook pages.

Schools in both districts and on Long Beach Island on Wednesday followed a "shelter-in-place" procedure and residents were urged to lock their doors.