Authorities struggling to piece together daring jail escape

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was a daring and elaborate escape: cutting through metal, crawling through plumbing tunnels, climbing a roof, rappelling four stories to freedom using ropes made from bedsheets.

[...] this wasn't a Hollywood movie; it was a real-life breakout that left authorities struggling to find three escapees — one an alleged killer — and put together the pieces of how they managed to thwart security at a Southern California maximum-security jail.

The priority was finding the men — whom are possibly armed and considered dangerous — but a probe also is underway to see whether the men had any help from inside or outside the Orange County Men's Central Jail, authorities said Sunday.

Jonathan Tieu, 20; Bac Duong, 43, and Hossein Nayeri, 37, were all awaiting trial for violent crimes but their cases were unconnected.

Cutting their way through additional half-inch-thick steel bars, the trio made their way to an unguarded area of the roof of the four-story building, where they apparently moved aside some razor wire and rappelled to the ground using elaborately braided ropes made from linens, authorities said.

The escape wasn't noticed for 16 hours, until a nighttime head count that was delayed about an hour because of a fight involving some other inmates that may — or may not — have been part of the escape plan.

I've been in law enforcement for 37 years, always working for sheriff's departments that manage jails.

[...] nobody had managed it in more than 20 years.

The third escaped inmate, 43-year-old Bac Duong, was being held without bond since last month on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm and other