Inmate escapes from state prison in Sumter County - WMBFNews.com, Myrtle Beach/Florence SC, Weather

REMBERT, SC (AP) - An inmate has escaped from a medium-security state prison in Sumter County.

Corrections Department officials said 34-year-old Andrew McElrath turned up missing at the Wateree Correctional Institution during an inmate count around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

McElrath has served about three months of a 15-month sentence for unauthorized use of a vehicle out of Anderson County.

Prisons spokesman Clark Newsom says officials are still trying to figure out how McElrath got out of the prison near Rembert.

The Wateree Correctional Institution has a farm that produces the milk, eggs and grits served to all of South Carolina's inmates.

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