Inmate Missing From Work Crew in Chester County

CHESTER, S.C. (AP) _ Authorities are looking for a South Carolina prison inmate who walked away from a work crew assignment. Corrections Department spokesman Clark Newsom says officials noticed that 25-year-old Steven Robert Spencer was missing at around noon Wednesday. Spencer had been assigned to a crew that was doing construction in Chester County. Newsom says Spencer asked to go to the bathroom and never returned. Spencer is serving an eight-year sentence for second-degree burglary from Horry County. Since September, he has been at the Palmer Pre-Release Center in Florence and had been on work detail for less than a month. Spencer would be eligible for parole next year.