Search focuses on Keene area for escaped electronic-monitoring inmate

LACONIA — A Belknap County Department of Corrections inmate who ripped off her electronic monitoring device to evade surveillance is still being sought by authorities.

Belknap County Sheriff’s Department Detective Scott Corbett said Thursday morning that he was leaving for the Keene area in hopes of apprehending Holly E. Wilson. Members of Wilson’s family live in the southwest part of the state, he said.

Wilson, 32, was first reported missing on Tuesday by the County Corrections Department. Her monitoring ankle bracelet was found later Tuesday somewhere along Route 11 in Gilford, the Sheriff’s Department reported. Shortly afterward, the sheriff’s office issued a public notice that a warrant had been issued for Wilson’s arrest for escape.

According to court records, Wilson, whose address is listed as 20 True Road, Unit 20, in Meredith, was sentenced on Feb. 23 to one year in the House of Corrections after pleading guilty in Belknap County Superior Court to sale of methamphetamine. Her sentence was modified shortly afterward to allow her to participate in a work-release program once she served the first 30 days of her sentence.

On May 26, a letter from the Corrections Department sent to the court stated, “Wilson is performing well while on work release and is eligible for the Electronic Monitoring Program for the next phase of her incarceration.”

In a statement released to the media Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Department said Wilson and her boyfriend, Steven Newcombe, had visited several locations on Monday evening, and sometime after visiting a local department store, she forcibly removed the monitoring device.

Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy David Perkins said Thursday that they were alerted because the devices are programmed to send a tamper alarm to a monitoring service if they are torn off.

Perkins said Wilson is wanted for Class B felony escape, a charge potentially punishable by a 3½- to seven-year prison sentence.