Escaped Philadelphia prisoner found dead in Harrowgate warehouse, police say

A body found in a Harrowgate warehouse on Monday has been identified as that of 34-year-old Gino Hagenkotter, who escaped from a Philadelphia prison late last month, police said Tuesday.

Just before 2:30 p.m. Monday, police responded to a report of an unresponsive man found in a warehouse on the 1100 block of East Venango Street, in the river wards. The man was pronounced dead at the scene by medics, police said.

Evidence at the scene suggested that someone broke into the warehouse. Police found a broken air vent and a pushed-out fan, as well as a ladder nearby. The man was not carrying identification, so he was initially classified as a John Doe.

On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office identified Hagenkotter through fingerprint analysis, police said. Hagenkotter’s family was notified by the U.S. Marshals Service.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Medical Examiner’s Office said Hagenkotter died from a drug overdose and his death was ruled accidental.

Hagenkotter, an inmate at Riverside Correctional Facility convicted of theft and drug charges, escaped Nov. 30 while performing supervised work in the orchard behind the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Complex in the Northeast. Officials said he asked his supervising guard for permission to use the restroom, then jumped the jail’s fence and fled through the neighboring sanitation plant.

About 15 minutes later, when the guard, suspicious of how long Hagenkotter had been gone, went to check the restroom, he wasn’t there. The guard immediately reported his absence to prison officials, police said, but by that that point, Hagenkotter had ditched his jumpsuit and was walking down the street toward Torresdale Avenue.

In the days after his escape, police had no reported sightings of Hagenkotter, Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark said.

Hagenkotter had spent the last eight years in and out of jail on theft and drug possession charges in Philadelphia and Bucks County. He had been most recently incarcerated since June for violating his probation tied to a burglary conviction in 2019, a case in which, records show, he broke into an apartment building where he had been working and stole a tenant’s road bike.

» READ MORE: The man who escaped from a Philly jail has spent years in and out of prison on drug and theft charges

In mid-November, a judge ordered that Hagenkotter be transferred to a drug treatment facility to serve the remainder of his sentence. He was set to be moved there on Nov. 30, but after officials found an open retail theft case in Bucks County, the transfer was canceled, and he was required to remain in jail through April 2024.

Blanche Carney, commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Prisons, said officials believe the cancellation of his transfer “played a part in his decision to escape.”

Hagenkotter was the fourth inmate to escape from a Philadelphia jail facility this year. In May, Ameen Hurst, 18, and Nasir Grant, 24, broke out of Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center. They were caught within about a week.

In September, a 30-year-old woman briefly escaped from the same facility. She jumped the fence and landed on the other side, but was immediately apprehended by guards.