Escaped Troup County inmate captured in Chambers County

Published 5:38 pm Monday, July 25, 2022

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A man who escaped from the Troup County Jail Friday has been recaptured, and now the Troup County Sheriff’s Office is working to make an incident like this never happens again.

Timothy Lane Tranffansted, 55, was arrested in Chambers County on Sunday, two days after he first was discovered missing.

“Often the jailers will do a walkthrough of the unit and count inmates to make sure everybody’s accounted for,” said Sheriff James Woodruff. “It was during one of those counts that they discovered Tranffansted was missing.”

Sgt. Stewart Smith of the Troup County Sheriff’s Office said it was approximately two hours, before it was noted that Tranffansted was gone.

“We had a door that a lock malfunctioned on that we weren’t aware of,” Woodruff said. We do daily inspections, but anything mechanical can tear up from time to time.”

“But this lock malfunctioned and he discovered it and went out the door.”

Woodruff said Tranffansted was found when a woman in Chambers County called 911 to report a suspicious person.

The Valley Police Department responded and when they approached Tranffansted, he told them he was the one who escaped from Troup County. According to Chief Mike Reynolds of the Valley Police Department it was roughly 1 p.m. Sunday when Tranffansted was detained. He was reportedly    lying down on the side of the road when the officer on the scene arrived, confirmed his identity and took him to Chambers County Jail.

“He didn’t put up any fight and admitted to who he was,” Reynolds said.

TCSO is working to double check and strengthen its security.

“When something like this happens, we do a debriefing to tighten our security and make it better,” Woodruff said. “As this has happened, we’re taking major steps to make sure our facility’s that much safer and stronger.”

Since Tranffansted was caught across the state line in Alabama, TCSO has to wait for him to sign extradition papers to come back to Georgia, Woodruff said. “Tranffansted will be held in the high maximum facility part of our jail since he is now a security risk,” Woodruff said. “That will be where he’ll stay the entire time he’s with us.” Tranffansted was originally jailed for theft and probation violations. An additional charge for his escape will be added to his original sentence, Woodruff said.

“With the prison system or with a county jail, from time to time, unfortunately, we’re going to have escapees,” Woodruff said. “What you want to do is two things: get those people back as quickly as possible, and then put things in place so it never happens again.”