In a scene that mimics The Fugitive, an escaped murder suspect fled the Oregon Mental Hospital and got himself stuck in some deep mud in a nearby pond.
During the movie The Fugitive, Harrison Ford’s character escapes a bus accident in which convicts are being transported. He successfully escapes into a river and swims downstream before opening an investigation into the murder of his wife. The movie eventually proves that Ford’s character was set up and an innocent man. The man who got stuck in the mud in Portland doesn’t have a Hollywood script to guide his actions and was stuck while trying to escape.
The stuck man doesn’t know how lucky he is
Although Christopher Lee Pray, a suspected murderer, fled from the hospital in an attempt to avoid facing trial and punishment, he is fortunate to be alive. When he got stuck in the mud, he couldn’t move and wasn’t able to get to shore. Authorities found him before he perished in the very thick mud, which can encapsulate a person.
Pray was not only stuck in the mud up to his neck, which meant he could easily sink further in the mud and suffocate but he was also stuck in a semi-prone position, which meant face down. This face-down position could put him in danger of losing strength in his neck and eventually suffocating in the pond.
Thankfully, Pray was saved before this happened. During his rescue, he reported that he had been stuck in the mud for more than 12 hours.
Not the warmest situation
In addition to the danger of sinking further in the mud, Pray was in danger of becoming hypothermic. Although the escape and recapture took place in August, one of the hottest months of the year, the mud and pondwater are well below temperatures that would allow a person to sustain their body temperature long-term. Exposure to the elements and the cool temperatures of the pond could easily cause a person to become hypothermic and eventually die.
Pray is extremely dangerous
Christopher Pray, 39, is labeled as “extremely dangerous” and an attempted murder suspect. The time in the mud might have changed the level of danger he might present to anyone, but that doesn’t absolve him from his previous crimes.
Pray was rescued by Firefighters, who didn’t know who he was, and taken to a nearby hospital to be check over for medical issues. He gave the hospital a fake name, but an employee at the hospital recognized him and notified Portland police who took him into custody.
Not the foot chase you’re thinking of
When Pray escaped, he did so while in leg shackles, a belly chain, handcuffs, and a restraint that connected all three together. He somehow stole a Dodge Caravan and led state troopers on a driving chase down Interstate 5. Eventually, police ended the chase due to safety concerns for themselves and other citizens. He must have found a way to get out of his restraints between the time he dumped the van and ended up in the pond. Otherwise, firefighters would have been alert to a problem when finding a man in shackles in the muddy pond.
The daunting rescue
The pond where Pray was found and rescued from only has three to six inches of water but has deep mud. It’s still unclear why he went into the muddy pond, maybe to cover his tracks in some manner, but that’s where the strange part of the story begins.
Firefighters were alerted to a body floating in the pond. This makes perfect sense since Pray was stuck in the mud for 12 hours, unable to move. When the rescue team got to the site, they had a hard time reaching Pray. He was nearly 75 feet from the shore which made it difficult to reach him.
Eventually, firefighters used a ladder truck with the ladder extended out over the pond to throw Pray a line and pull him out of the mud while dragging him to the shore. Pray must have lost his desire to escape by this time because he cooperated and went to the hospital.
Not the Hollywood ending
Unlike The Fugitive, Pray did not attempt to clear his name or investigate his crimes to show that the police had the wrong person. In fact, the opposite is more likely. Instead of walking free as Ford’s character did at the end of the movie, Christopher Pray will likely face additional charges for the stolen van, the police chase, and anything else that can be added to the most serious crime of murder, for which he’s already a suspect.
Sarah Johnson