NEW ROADS - The Pointe Coupee Sheriff's Office is trying to piece together how 42-year-old inmate Crystal Palermo escaped Sunday night.

"Chief Joffrion and I had a meeting with the warden this morning around nine o'clock and asked him what happened, how it happened, and why it happened, but he did not have those answers yet," Pointe Coupee Sheriff Rene Thibodeaux said.

The sheriff's office said that Palermo fled into the woods while on the run, but she was unable to get far. Deputies were able to recover her in a couple of hours. Thibodeaux said he could only recall one other escape prior to this one.

"Anytime you have manpower or employees, sometimes mistakes can be made. When looking into whether any mistakes were made in this situation, it's clear that something occurred for someone to get away from the building," he said.

Thibodeaux said the agency is actively working to see what went wrong the night of the escape.

"There will be a complete investigation, and they will report back to us with the findings. If the procedures and policies were breached, they will determine what needs to be done to fix it, and we will have to move on from there," he stated.