Senara Patu charged for escaping from jail

Senara Patu, a female inmate who recently escaped confinement from the Tafuna Correctional Facility (TCF), was charged.

The defendant appeared in the District Court this week on one count of escaping from confinement.

Court filings indicate that on July 14, 2023, at 6 PM, Chris Amituana’i, the defendant’s boyfriend, contacted Patu via cell phone and planned the escape.

He planned to wait in a taxi at Lions Park while Patu of Pago Pago looked for a way to escape. At 7 p.m., Amituana’i saw Patu outside the gate, picked her up, and proceeded to the inmate’s home in Pago Pago.

The inmate and her boyfriend showered and ate, and slept. Two hours later, on their way home, the taxi driver turned the car around at Fagaalu Park and drove to the hospital intersection, where a police unit was parked.

Both individuals were then escorted into the police vehicle for further investigation. Patu informed Police that they played volleyball at the women’s holding facility, and the ball went over the wall.

She retrieved the ball, noticed no Correctional officers in sight, and saw that the main gate wasn’t secure.

She walked up to the gate, unlatched the padlock, went outside, and got into a taxi with her boyfriend.