UPDATE: Prisoner headed to 'secure facility,' faces additional 5 years

LACEY TOWNSHIP -- The escaped inmate who eluded authorities for nearly a week was apprehended Monday morning in a wooded area off the Garden State Parkway.

Arthur Buckel, 38, had been on the run since he was discovered missing from the Bayside State Prison unit at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Winslow Township during a 6 a.m. bed check on May 3.

Authorities said Buckel did not resist when he was taken into custody around 11:30 a.m. on the side of the Parkway northbound at milepost 76.6, just north of the Forked River rest stop, where Buckel was seen Sunday evening.

Lacey police Chief David Paprota said Detective Keith Pearce located Buckel in a wooded area after a passing driver reported seeing a person in the woods. Pearce held Buckel at gunpoint until backup arrived, Paprota said.

Swarms of police vehicles raced to the side of the highway, closing all lanes of traffic as authorities sat Buckel on a guardrail before putting him in the back of a police vehicle. Buckel was wearing a gray sweatshirt and ripped khaki pants.

Buckel faces an additional three to five years in prison for escaping, and could face additional criminal charges for offenses committed while he was on the run for nearly a week, Syed Hassan, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, said in a statement sent to news outlets.

Buckel will be evaluated by the DOC medical unit and then taken to a "secure facility," Hassan said.

After Buckel was discovered missing on May 3, the initial manhunt for the once-convicted killer started in Hammonton, near where he was in prison. On May 4, the search shifted about 40 miles northeast in Barnegat Township after police captured him on surveillance camera entering a CVS on West Bay Avenue. Authorities also found a stolen Chevrolet Silverado in the parking lot that was registered out of Hammonton.

For two days, hundreds of law enforcement officers descended on the sleepy southern Ocean County town until police there received information on May 5 that Buckel was out of the area.

The search for Buckel intensified on Sunday night after he reportedly indicated a desire to turn himself in and was making arrangements with the authorities, through family, to do so at the Forked River rest area on the Garden State Parkway. But he fled prior to the arrival of police.

Authorities searched wooded areas near the Parkway on Monday, focusing on Double Trouble State Park in Berkeley Township. A command center was stationed at the park's entrance near the intersection of Pinewald Kewsick and Double Trouble roads.

Just before 11:30 a.m., a swarm of police vehicles zoomed out of that park entrance, and hopped on the Parkway. Authorities pulled over on the side of the highway just south of Exit 77, where Buckel was taken into custody without incident.

Buckel, who would have been eligible for parole on May 21 had he not escaped, was serving a maximum of three years for various offenses out of Union and Passaic counties. The charges included aggravated assault, receiving stolen property and burglary.

This was not his first conviction, however.

His most serious conviction came in 1996, when Buckel was sentenced to state prison for killing a 10-month-old girl in Jersey City by striking the infant multiple times in the head while she was crying.

Buckel was released from prison on June 30, 2010 on the aggravated manslaughter charge in Hudson County.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.