UPDATE: Belknap County Sheriff Bill Wright confirmed just before 2 p.m. Wednesday that Peter DiBiaso was captured in Cornish, New York and is awaiting extradition to New Hampshire.
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By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
LACONIA – A search is underway for Peter DiBiaso, 57, who escaped Monday at about 8:30 p.m. from the Belknap County Jail where he was awaiting trial on domestic violence-related crimes.
Belknap County Sheriff Bill Wright said DiBiaso rammed open a door on the back side of the laundry facility that opened into the bullpen in the old section of the jail where he scaled the fence.
That portion of the fence is about 10 feet tall and doesn’t have the same razor wire at the top as the newer section of the jail, Wright said. Authorities noticed DiBiaso was missing about an hour after his escape.
Wright said he has chased DiBiaso before when he tried to flee from authorities. He believes DiBiaso planned the escape because a surveillance video caught him about one and a half miles from the jail wearing different clothes and carrying a back pack.
Wright doesn’t think there is anyone helping DiBiaso, but he didn’t rule it out since DiBiaso comes from the area.
When he flees, DiBiaso is likely to end up in the Clearwater, Fla. area where he has family, Wright said.
“I would not be surprised if he manages to finagle his way back to Florida,” Wright said.
Wright started his first term as sheriff in January 2021, but he was a deputy for about 17 years before that.
Wright investigated DiBiaso in the highly publicized case in 2011 when he was arrested for domestic violence charges against his then-girlfriend Lucy Carrillo, who was an assistant attorney general when they lived together in Alton.
DiBiaso was acquitted of most of the charges in that case, but was convicted of witness tampering and misdemeanor assault for bruising Carrillo’s arm. Carrillo left the state soon after DiBiaso was sentenced to state prison in that case. Wright said the victim in this case is unrelated to the Carrillo case.
In May of 2021 when police were looking to arrest DiBiaso, they shut down Country Club Road at Cotton Hill and Liberty Hill in Laconia and urged people to shelter in place.
He got away that time and was picked up in Florida last November and extradicted to New Hampshire in May, Wright said.
The U.S. Marshal’s Service and Wright’s office issued a news release saying the Joint Fugitive Task Force will pay up to $2,500 for information leading to DiBiaso’s location and arrest.
He is considered dangerous and was being held on pretrial status, the release said, for being an armed career criminal, criminal threatening with a deadly weapon, stalking and operating a motor vehicle without a license.
He was described as being a white male, 5’ 8” tall weighing 180 pounds with blue eyes, blond hair with several tattoos, including on his right hand, left forearm, chest, back, left ankle and left shoulder.
Authorities asked anyone with information about his whereabouts to call the USMS at 603-225-1632 or the sheriff’s office at 603-527-5454.
