Kansas man who infamously escaped Lansing facility in dog crate dies in Arizona prison

A former Kansas prison inmate who made national headlines after he escaped the Lansing Correctional Facility in a dog crate died in an Arizona prison Sunday.

Nearly two decades ago on Feb. 12, 2006, John Manard was driven off Kansas prison grounds while hiding in the back of a white cargo van in a dog crate alongside several stray dogs. The van was driven by Toby Dorr — then Toby Young, a 48-year old wife and mother of two — who helped him escape after a romance blossomed between the two while she volunteered as the head of the prison’s dog training program.

“John is finally free. But I am crushed,” Dorr said in a Facebook post Wednesday.

Officials at the Arizona Department of Corrections said Manard, 45, died, at the La Palma Correctional Center in Arizona, where he has been since 2017. All inmate deaths are investigated by the county medical examiner’s office, according to the death notification.

Manard’s 2006 escape from prison in Kansas sparked a federal manhunt.

The two later told The Star they had fallen in love. The plot was hatched after they had grown close over many months, they said. Manard lost 25 pounds to fit inside the crate, and they planned the escape for a Sunday when security would be more relaxed.

Manard was serving a life sentence after being convicted for his role in a 1996 fatal carjacking in Overland Park. In a letter to The Star, he previously called himself a “17-year-old child” and said he made a huge mistake that led to his life sentence.

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After the escape, the couple shacked up in a Tennessee cabin for 12 days, where authorities would later discover books, sex toys, a blue parakeet, a guitar and sheet music to the jailbreak film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

The law caught up with them in the Chattanooga area.

The pair was on an outing, seeing a movie and shopping, when they were spotted by U.S. Marshals. They fled in a high-speed highway pursuit, crashed into a tree and were arrested.

Dorr was sentenced to spend 21 months in jail for her role in the escape. She was released from a federal prison in Houston in 2008 before marrying and settling down back in the Kansas City area.

Manard faced fresh federal charges for the escape and remained incarcerated.

Previous reporting from The Star’s Bill Lukitsch, Dawn Bormann and Lauren Fox were used in this piece.

This story was originally published August 28, 2024 at 2:08 PM.