Mother wants answers after man who escaped North Texas mental hospital arrested in Austin

Alexander Ervin was returned to the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon on Tuesday after leading police on a two-week search ending in Austin, his mother said. But she wants answers on how he escaped.

Ervin, 29, was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in the 2013 stabbing of his father. He escaped from the state mental hospital in Vernon, near the Oklahoma-Texas border, on June 26. and was found more than 300 miles away.

The Vernon Police Department said the Austin Police Department took Ervin into custody about 6:30 p.m. on July 10. Authorities have not disclosed how he got to Austin.

Leslie Ervin, Alexander Ervin’s mother, said “Lex” suffers from schizoaffective disorder. She was relieved he was found safely.

“I was convinced he was dead in the desert, to be perfectly honest,” Leslie Ervin told the Star-Telegram in a phone interview.

Alexander Ervin was found in a park near a home she owns in Austin. Leslie Ervin said he was “peaceful and cordial” when police found him.

“Onlookers had called the police because they thought he had to come to heat exhaustion,” Leslie Ervin said. “The police came and I think Lex was just so exhausted.”

Vernon police detective Capt. Wayne Hodges said Alexander Ervin was taken into custody by APD without incident. He is charged with escape, a third-degree felony, in Wilbarger County.

Police said Alexander Ervin was to be considered armed and dangerous during the search.

“I don’t think he had any injuries,” Hodges said. “Also, another thing, he didn’t hurt anybody else. And that’s at least as far as we know. Which obviously was one of our concerns.”

Leslie Ervin spoke with her son Tuesday.

Leslie Ervin said Alexander Ervin told her he put on a COVID mask and a security guard let him into an area where he climbed a fence.

“Lex was then standing outside the guard house, he recognized people inside ... and instead of going into the guard house, he climbed over the shorter fence,” Leslie Ervin said. “Underneath the guard tower and ran to freedom.”

Vernon police said Alexander Ervin left his dorm around 9 p.m. and was seen on video climbing an 8-foot fence around 9:15 p.m., heading north. The Texas Department of Corrections provided the search team with bloodhounds.

Leslie Ervin said she was told by current employees at the hospital that this was Alexander’s third attempt at escaping the hospital. She said the other two times, he tried to go through unlocked doors.

Leslie Ervin said she used to be on the board of the National Alliance of Mental Illness and became an advocate once her son was committed to NTSH. She said she filed multiple complaints against the hospital.

“I’m going to work until my last breath in my body to find out what happened,” Leslie Ervin said.

She said the hospital told her Tuesday that there was an internal investigation and that the information released will be limited.