BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — An accused murderer from Pennsylvania who escaped from a mental hospital in Lewis County earlier this week is back in police custody.
State Police said Rocco Zuccaro, 30, of Burgettstown, Pa., was apprehended in the McWhorter area of Harrison County on Wednesday night. Troopers said Sgt. J.M. Menendez found Zuccaro hiding in tall grass near a natural gas facility.
Law enforcement officers from across West Virginia were searching the McWhorter area because of multiple reports from people who’d spotted Zuccaro.
Zuccaro, who was being held on the North Central Regional Jail on Thursday morning, will be charged with felony escape.
The search for him started Monday afternoon when he escaped from William R. Sharpe, Jr. Hospital in Weston where he was undergoing a psychological evaluation ahead of a possible trial for the 2013 shooting death of a Brooke County man, Jason Pratz.
In addition to State Police, the West Virginia National Guard, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Department, the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Police, the Weston Police Department, the U.S. Marshal Service and other law enforcement agencies were part of the search for Zuccaro.