Escaped inmate returns to Agassiz, B.C., institution

A convicted murderer who walked away from a minimum-security corrections facility near Agassiz, B.C., on Wednesday turned himself in on Friday.

Ralph Whitfield Morris, 73, was serving time for second-degree murder, armed robbery and escaping lawful custody. It was discovered that he was missing on Wednesday morning.

RCMP received word at about 3 a.m. Friday that Morris had returned to the Kwikwexwelhp Healing Village, where he was imprisoned, said Const. Tara Harrington.

Police went to the facility and arrested him for escaping lawful custody. He was in police custody on Friday.

Morris had been hiding in the woods several kilometers from the institution for the past few days, Harrington said.

"[He] returned because of the harsh conditions," Harrington said in a news release.

Morris began serving a sentence for armed robbery in 1975. He is also serving a life sentence handed down in 1982 for second-degree murder, escaping lawful custody and uttering threats, police said.