UPDATE: Authorities suspend ground search for escaped inmate

Howard County police say a ground search around a psychiatric hospital in Jessup for an escaped prisoner has been suspended.  

Authorities searched from Friday through Saturday morning around Clifton Perkins hospital with bloodhounds and helicopters but found no sign that 28-year-old David Watson remained in the area.

Authorities are continuing to follow up on leads locally, and in Wicomico County, Maryland, and Delaware, where Watson also has ties.

Watson was being transported to the hospital by Wicomico County officers when he freed himself from handcuffs and a waist chain and escaped Friday morning.  

Watson is serving a sentence of more than 100 years in Delaware for crimes including attempted murder. He's been charged with attempted murder and other offenses on Maryland's Eastern Shore related to shootings of police officers' homes.

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