WHITE COUNTY – A month-long manhunt for two men who escaped from a Southern Illinois jail ended when the two fugitives were located in two separate days this weekend.

(pictured above: Johnny Tipton and Hardin County Sheriff JT Fricker)

On Friday night a Carmi resident reported he had observed an individual matching 24-year-old Zachery Shock. Officers from Illinois State Police, Gallatin County Sheriff’s Department, Hardin County Sheriff’s Department, and Ridgway Police Department responded to the sighting.

At approximately 10:23 p.m., two ISP officers acting a reported sighting by a Carmi resident, located 24-year-old Zachery Shock walking in the middle of the road near Equality, in rural Gallatin County.

Shock was taken into custody without incident. At the time of his arrest, Shock was armed with a loaded handgun.

At the time of the escape, Shock was awaiting trial for the first-degree murder of James Berkel. Shock is accused of shooting the Salem man to death in his mother’s McLeansboro home in 2016.

Details behind the arrest of the second fugitive, 61-year-old James Tipton, have not yet been released. However, Tipton was arrested Saturday night in Hardin County.

Both men were transported back to the White County Jail where they will be charged with escape.

A third inmate, 28-year-old Justin Bray was caught in June just days after the three used a pipe to break a hole in the White County jail on June 16