How escaped New Orleans inmate Derrick Groves was captured after 5 months

A five-month manhunt for Derrick Groves — the last of 10 inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail in mid-May — ended Wednesday afternoon after a tip led federal law enforcement to a crawl space in an Atlanta home, investigators say.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Fair of the Eastern District of Louisiana told CBS News that Groves, convicted of a 2018 double murder, was arrested shortly after 2 p.m. ET following a coordinated operation between the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Atlanta Police Department SWAT team.

The arrest stemmed from a Crime Stoppers Greater New Orleans tip received earlier this summer that pointed investigators toward the Atlanta area. Fair declined to specify when the tip came in, citing safety concerns and the need to protect the informant.

“We’ve been receiving tips all summer,” he said. “We don’t want to get somebody hurt or anything, so we’re not putting the exact time frame on when that tip came in.”

After weeks of follow-up work, marshals in Louisiana pushed out a lead to counterparts in Georgia. Officers executed a search warrant at a home in the Atlanta area that investigators believe Groves may have been staying in for some time. Fair said it was “possibly a rental home,” but added, “There’s a lot of follow-up work that’ll be done on this to answer those questions.”

At first, it appeared the house was empty. “Normally during our fugitive work, we have at least some signs that the person is at the house — movement, running, something,” Fair said. “This did not happen.”

Investigators deployed gas into the home multiple times, including in the basement, before discovering Groves hiding inside a narrow crawl space. 

“We did have concerns maybe he wasn’t in the house,” Fair said. “But ultimately, they found him hiding in a crawl space. I believe that crawl space was in the basement … and he had put some thought and work into the hiding space he was in.”

Fair said Groves appeared “prepared to hide for the long haul” and may have reinforced the space himself. He was taken into custody without injury, and no weapons were recovered at the scene, though a further search of the residence is now underway. 

Authorities are still piecing together how Groves traveled from New Orleans to Atlanta, whether he received assistance and how long he had been in Georgia. 

“I’d probably guess [he traveled by] car, but we don’t know,” Fair said. “That’s going to be part of the follow-up work that’s going to be done now that he’s in custody.”

Fair said Groves was believed to be a ringleader in the May 16 jailbreak from the Orleans Parish Justice Center, in which inmates pulled a jail cell door off its tracks, removed a toilet from an empty cell and crawled through a hole in the wall before scaling a fence. The brazen escape exposed design flaws and security failures in the 10-year-old jail, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson told CBS News earlier this year.

All 10 escapees have now been captured.

The U.S. Marshals credited a coalition of agencies — including the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, New Orleans Police Department, Louisiana State Police, Homeland Security Investigations, FBI and Atlanta Police — for their roles in the investigation.

Fair also credited media coverage and public engagement for keeping attention on the case. 

“He was bombarded on the news for months on end,” Fair said. “The media was a huge part of this capture. It kept him on the run and probably pretty tired all summer.”

Jail records in Fulton County, Georgia, show Groves was booked on fugitive from justice charges. Groves is expected to be extradited to Louisiana, where he will face additional charges related to the escape. Fair said Louisiana State Police are likely to lead that transfer.

“We’re just happy nobody got injured,” Fair said. “All 10 of the escapees are back in custody, and we’re proud of that success.”