10 August 2023- Pennsylvania State Police are looking for a man who was incarcerated in Franklin County Jail as recently as Wednesday morning but escaped following an appointment in Chambersburg. Police are searching for Joshua Allen Nicholl, 26, and originally from Greencastle. Nicholl is being charged with felony escape from custody, but again a warrant is out for his arrest.
Around 6:40pm on August 9th, Pennsylvania State Police were alerted by the Franklin County Jail that a prisoner had escaped. Talking to the mother of the escapee, Joshua Nicholl, police learned that Nicholl had a doctors appointment he was permitted to leave the jail for at Chambersburg Hospital earlier that day. His permission to leave was only granted under the condition that he return when his appointment was finished.
Nicholl was taken by his mother to the hospital and he attended his regular appointment. On the drive back from the hospital, however, Nicholl allegedly jumped out of his mother’s vehicle and ran away from her car in an attempt to avoid going back to jail.
Police learned that around 5pm, Nicholl contacted his mother by phone and told her that he was at the Funkstown Community Park in Maryland and wanted to be picked up. Nicholl’s mother located him and called EMS because her son was suffering from an overdose on an unknown substance. Nicholl, however, denied EMS treatment due to him not wanting to be discovered by authorities and taken back to Franklin County Jail.
After denying EMS treatment, Nicholl’s mother attempted to bring him back to the jail in her vehicle from the Hagerstown area. Nicholl, however, again fled from her vehicle on foot and was lost again. He later texted his mother, saying that he was “turning off his phone so that nobody could call or find him” in a final effort to avoid going back to jail.
Police are still searching for Joshua Allen Nicholl. Anyone with information on Nicholl’s whereabouts should contact either Pennsylvania State Police in Chambersburg or Maryland State Police in Hagerstown.
