The man who is assumed to have helped the threee prisoners escape killed himself.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Three state prison escapees, including a convicted killer and another who tried to murder a police officer, were arrested without incident Thursday afternoon at a Massachusetts campground following a 29-hour search.

The three were tracked to a tent at the Sandy Pond Campground in Plymouth, Mass., and had no weapons, Sgt. Ed Principe of the Massachusetts State Police said.

More than 50 officers surrounded the campground around noon. When one of the men ventured away from the tent at 3:20 p.m., he was arrested without alerting the other two, Principe said. Police used a bullhorn to address the others about 30 minutes later.

Police “advised them they were completely surrounded and to come out with their hands up,” Principe said. “They complied and were arrested without incident.”

The escapees – convicted murderer Kevin Gil, 31, of Boston; Philip J. Dick, 23, of Hampton, N.H., convicted of attempted murder; and Christopher McNeil, 35, of Willards, Md., a parole violator – had spent the night at the campground, New Hampshire State Police Maj. Barry Hunter said.

Sandy Pond is 120 miles south of Concord, where the inmates cut through two prison fences Wednesday morning at the New Hampshire State Prison. Investigators said they had outside help from someone who provided them with clothes and transportation.

“It was part of a well thought-out plan,” state Attorney General Peter Heed said. “They were dangerous, they were organized, they were prepared.”

Early Thursday, the man believed to have helped them was traced to a Salem, N.H., motel. When police identified themselves, he shot himself in the head.

The man, Shane Laslie of Concord, was pronounced dead Thursday afternoon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Police were never able to question him.

They found Laslie’s 1995 Ford Taurus parked outside the motel and suspected it was the inmates’ getaway car. It was not known how the men got to Plymouth or how they got a tent.

Laslie, 26, was in the prison at the same time as the escapees, Hunter said. He was paroled in January 2002 following a conviction for cocaine possession, said Jeff Lyons, a New Hampshire Corrections Department spokesman.

Hunter said notes were exchanged between Laslie and some of the escapees.

He said Laslie’s capture “gave us some insight” into the trio’s “ultimate plan” and helped lead to the Thursday afternoon arrests. He would not elaborate and said he didn’t know why Laslie helped them.

He said the Rockingham County attorney’s office provided the name of an associate of Laslie’s, and that person, whose name was not released, provided information that steered police to the campground.

“There is no reason to suspect there were accomplices in addition to Mr. Laslie,” Hunter said.

Heed said there was no indication the three inmates, all originally from Massachusetts, committed any crimes while they were free.

The escapees were to appear in Plymouth (Mass.) District Court on Friday, when New Hampshire authorities planned to seek extradition.

The three, who cut through two fences topped by razor wire to gain their freedom, shed their green prison jumpsuits soon after the 10:10 a.m. Wednesday escape from an industrial area of the prison. The escape was discovered about 15 minutes later.

A jogger found the jumpsuits near Exit 2 on Interstate 89, about 3.5 miles southwest of the prison, Hunter said.

Police – some with dogs – searched neighborhoods near the prison Wednesday while helicopters flew overhead. The search eventually expanded into nearby states and finally nationwide with at least two of the men considered dangerous. The FBI, U.S. attorney’s office and U.S. marshal’s office were involved.

Lyons said Gil was sentenced in 2001 to 45 years to life after pleading guilty to fatally stabbing Glen Sousa of Lowell, Mass., in a Salem motel room on Aug. 18, 2000. Prosecutors said Gil was trying to rob Sousa.

Dick was serving 15 to 30 years for the attempted murder of police officers during a 1999 shootout in Raymond following a domestic dispute, Lyons said. Dick’s last address was in Hampton.

Lyons said McNeil was in prison for parole violations on convictions on drug, forgery and stolen-property charges. State police said he was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 1994.

AP-ES-06-05-03 1910EDT

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