GIDDINGS, Texas -- Two juveniles who escaped the Giddings State School Saturday were captured Sunday around 7 p.m. in Montgomery County after a family spotted the suspects in their backyard.
The TJJD said 16-year-olds Brice Ryan Karalis and Bryan Ernando Villanueva escaped the juvenile justice correctional facility around 9 p.m. on Saturday.
According to the TJJD, the teens were apprehended by DPS officials in New Caney, Texas, after someone observed the teens near a baseball park, recognized them from pictures, and called law enforcement.
Aven Giannette, who lives in New Caney, told KVUE his mother-in-law spotted the teens in her backyard, which is adjacent to Giannette's, behind the baseball park Sunday afternoon.
"She looked through the window of their house and saw something in her backyard, wasn't sure what it was," Giannette said. "My father-in-law heard it over the radio [and] told her to lock the door, that there were two people running and that they were trying to find them."
He said his mother-in-law then grabbed a gun and gave it to his father-in-law.
"She was on the phone with police telling them where they were. [My father-in-law] told [the teens], 'Don't move. Stay right there,'" Giannette said.
The teens tried to run away, but they had nowhere to go except back over the fence and onto the baseball field. One of Giannette's dogs, a shetland sheep dog named Simba, helped corner them in his yard, Giannette said.
"My dog had them cornered to where they could only come straight, and [my father-in-law] had 'em cornered on his side of the fence where the only thing they could do was jump back over the fence and go back the other way," he said.
Eventually, the teens ran back onto the field, where DPS troopers caught them and arrested them.
Giannette said he never thought the teens would make it all the way to New Caney.
"[My mother-in-law] told us that she read up that there were two teens escaped. And I said, 'Yeah, I read that, but that's 100 miles away from here. I mean, I don't think that's them,'" he recalled.
The Giddings Police Department said Karalis and Villanueva had also been seen around Veterans Park around 10:50 p.m. on Saturday. Karalis was wearing black shorts and a blue hoodie, while Villanueva was wearing black shorts and a gray polo shirt.
Officials could not immediately elaborate on either of the juveniles' crimes.
The Department of Public Safety, Lee County Sheriff's Department, Giddings Police Department, and law enforcement officers from the Texas Juvenile Justice Department's Office of Inspector General coordinated efforts to apprehend the teens, the TJJD said.
The GPD said helicopters were unable to assist Saturday night due to weather, but were available on Sunday.