Killer caught after fleeing Elgin mental health center

A killer who was being held at the Elgin Mental Health Center escaped briefly Saturday morning before being caught in Bartlett, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services.

The man was being held at the center after being found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. Authorities would not release his name, citing medical privacy rules.

At around 7:35 a.m., the staff at the mental health center noticed a key was missing and discovered the patient was not at the center, according to a spokesman for the department of human services.

Within the next hour, police in neighboring Bartlett got a call from a resident about a suspicious person. Police responded to the scene, and not knowing the man was an escaped patient, gave him a ride to the train station, Bartlett Police Sgt. Jessica Crowley said.

Sometime during the next hour, Bartlett police learned the man's identity and returned to the train station, where he was still waiting for a train, Crowley said. Bartlett police picked him up around 9:15 a.m. and returned him to the Elgin facility 10 minutes later, authorities said.

The escaped patient had the missing key when he was picked up by police, a human services spokesman said. He told police he took a cab to Bartlett, according to Crowley. It is not clear where he was headed next.

Staff at the mental health center are still trying to determine how the patient escaped, department of human services spokesman Tom Green said.

"The department will conduct a review of the incident, and the key (handling) procedure has been modified," Green said. "This type of incident is extremely rare."