To escape from a maximum-security prison in South Carolina nearly a dozen years ago, Jimmy Causey hid in a Dumpster. Then he waited patiently for a trash truck to whisk him and a fellow convict beyond the walls of Broad River Correctional Institution, where Mr. Causey was serving a life sentence for kidnapping.

Mr. Causey’s brush with freedom, however, was fleeting; after a three-day manhunt, he and his partner in crime were back behind bars.

On Thursday, the authorities said they were puzzling over how Mr. Causey, 46, had managed to escape from another maximum-security prison on Wednesday. Just before 2 p.m. that day, they noticed he was missing from Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville, S.C.

This time, Mr. Causey apparently escaped alone.

“DO NOT APPROACH,” the South Carolina Department of Corrections warned on Twitter. “Call 9-1-1 if seen.”