Manhunt expands for 'vicious hoodlums' who killed Georgia prison guards

The manhunt intensified and expanded nationwide Thursday for two "vicious" Georgia inmates accused of killing two guards and fleeing a prison bus two days ago.

The reward for information leading to the capture of Donnie Russell "Whiskey" Rowe, 43, and Ricky Dubose, 24, rose to at least $130,000, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said.

"This is the greatest (search) effort I have ever seen, and it’s not just because of the crime. It’s because the public is in grave danger," Sills said. "These are dangerous, seriously dangerous, vicious hoodlums that need to be apprehended."

Authorities say the men overpowered the guards, killing them with their own weapons, before fleeing the bus near Eatonton, about 70 miles southeast of Atlanta early Tuesday. They carjacked a passerby's 2004 Honda Civic at gunpoint, and Sills said the duo ransacked a house 25 miles away later that day, taking food and clothes.

Sills said the men then walked several miles before stealing a white Ford pickup at an industrial site sometime before 6 a.m. Wednesday. Since then, nothing.

"We are actively looking for this truck, and these two individuals," Sills said. "They've had time to be half way across the United States."

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The FBI is leading the investigation. David LeValley, special agent in charge of the Atlanta office, said law enforcement was increasing the search effort — and is prepared to maintain a massive effort until the men are found.

"It has become a nationwide search," LeValley said. "We need the eyes and ears of everybody, really, in this country to be on the lookout."

The prison bus was equipped with security video and had 31 other inmates in its cage, Sills said. Police arriving at the scene found the other inmates handcuffed inside the locked truck with the engine running.

Sills said investigators were trying to determine how the killers got out of the cage and into the driver's compartment. He said he feared the killers, armed with the officers' semiautomatic handguns, would kill again.

Sills said he watched the video but was not certain which inmate killed Sgt. Christopher Monica, 42, a corrections officer since 2009, and Sgt. Curtis Billue, 58, who would have marked his 10th anniversary with the department next month.

The two inmates had been cellmates from time to time in the state prison system. Dubose was serving a 20-year sentence for armed robbery, aggravated assault and theft from a 2014 case. Rowe has been serving a life sentence since 2002 with convictions including armed robbery, possession of a firearm during a crime and aggravated assault.

Sills said he doubts the men remained in the area.

"We are looking for them anywhere they might be on planet Earth," he said.