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VINITA, Okla. – Officials say a man who walked away from a prison in northeast Oklahoma has been found dead.

Around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, authorities say 52-year-old Ricky Bauders was seen running away from the Northeast Oklahoma Correctional Center, a minimum-security prison in Vinita.

One day later, witnesses spotted Bauders near the correctional center.

On Thursday, officers found Bauders’ body behind an outdoor storage area, near a hayfield, on the edge of the prison’s grounds.

Authorities believe Bauders went to the storage area during a rainstorm overnight and took his own life.

At this point, investigators with the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office will determine Bauders’ exact manner and cause of death.

Bauders was serving a four-year sentence out of Tulsa County for second-degree burglary.

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