Inmate's Escape Plan Is Foiled When the Instructions Are Sent to the Wrong Address: Authorities

Sean Castorina, Shannon Gurkin, and Dakota Marek were all arrested in connection with the alleged crime.
Left: Sean Castorina, Shannon Gurkin, Dakota Marek

He has been charged along with two others for the alleged plot.

A North Carolina prisoner’s master escape plan was foiled when a letter intended for his alleged co-conspirators was sent to the wrong address, authorities said.

Sean Damion Castorina, 43, who is currently held in the Alamance County Detention Center in Graham, was allegedly planning to use an explosive to make an escape, authorities said. 

The plot was discovered, however, when a resident opened a letter allegedly intended for Shannon Gurkin, 23, and Dakota Marek, 24, which detailed “ingredients to make a bomb, and where to place the device to blow a hole in the wall,” according to the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office.

"These two individuals were to get the bombing material, make a bomb, and put the bomb on the south side of the detention center ... to tear down the wall so that Mr. Sean Castorina could escape," Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said during a press conference. "They were to leave the country once that happened."

Johnson went on to say they could have lost an inmate or employees had the plan gone through.

Castorina is being held at the jail on a charge of first-degree murder linked back to Aug. 2017. He has now been charged with four counts of felony conspiracy, two counts of manufacture/assemble a weapon of mass destruction, and one count of attempted escape from jail. 

This wasn’t the first time Castorina had attempted an escape. He attempted to flee from an annex unit earlier in the year, authorities said. 

Gurkin and Marek were also charged with malicious use of an explosive advice to damage property.

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