Federal fugitive officers arrested Hope Skerrett and Kerriah Ohler in Dover a day after their escape from the Louisville facility.
LOUISVILLE, OH — Two women who escaped from the Stark Regional Community Correction Center on Monday were arrested Tuesday evening in Dover, ending a search that involved local police, sheriff’s deputies and a federal fugitive task force.
Hope Skerrett and Kerriah Ohler were arrested in the 600 block of Race Street by the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, according to News 5 Cleveland. Both women were then taken to the Stark County Jail. Their arrests came about a day after authorities said they escaped from the community corrections facility on Lesh Street NE in Louisville.
The escape was reported shortly before 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 12. Canton police responding to the facility initially received information that the women might still be on the roof. Officers used a drone and determined the women had already left the roof and fled toward a nearby nature preserve. Police and Stark County sheriff’s deputies then searched the surrounding area with a K-9 unit.
Michael Beebe, executive director of the Stark Regional Community Correction Center, told local news outlets that the women climbed a fence and used a robe over razor wire as they made their way toward the roof. They later jumped from the roof and fled the property. A pair of white tennis shoes was found near the building, and officers searching the preserve also recovered discarded dark-colored clothing.
A Canton police investigative report described indications that the escape may have been planned. According to the report, investigators were told the women intended to meet someone near a Walmart along U.S. Route 62 before traveling toward Florida. Authorities did not immediately establish publicly whether anyone ultimately assisted the women after they left the facility.
Police said one woman had been wearing all black and the other had been wearing black pants and a gray sweatshirt when they escaped. Warrants were issued during the search, and the women were entered into the Law Enforcement Automated Data System. The U.S. Marshals Service later joined the effort to locate them.
Beebe said Ohler had been placed at the center in connection with a fourth-degree felony involving failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer in Tuscarawas County. Skerrett had been placed there for a third-degree felony involving illegal conveyance of drugs onto the grounds of a specified government facility in Stark County.
The Stark Regional Community Correction Center is a community-based correctional facility serving eligible adult felony offenders sentenced by common pleas courts in Stark, Holmes, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties. The center provides structured residential supervision along with treatment, education and other programming. Although it is not operated as a traditional prison or jail, Beebe said residents cannot freely leave the secured facility.
Before the arrests, Beebe said a criminal referral related to the escape would be submitted to the Stark County Prosecutor’s Office. Authorities had not publicly announced any additional charges stemming from the escape by late Tuesday. Skerrett and Ohler were in custody at the Stark County Jail after their arrests in Dover.
Author note: Last updated Oct. 13, 2026.