How did killer escape?

The brother of a Mount Maunganui woman brutally murdered 21 years ago has questioned why her killer was in a position to escape prison yesterday.
Convicted murderer and double rapist Christopher Thomas Watkins sparked a massive manhunt after he escaped while working at the low security Tongariro Rangipo Prison.
Watkins was serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder of Janet Wardell. He had been working at the prison when he walked off about 12.15pm. Staff at the prison noticed he was missing about 1pm.
Watkins killed Ms Wardell by brutally slashing her neck with a knife in a sleep-out at her Leander St home in Mount Maunganui 21 years ago.

Ms Wardell's brother, Andrew Wardell, said Watkins had followed and killed his sister because she pulled a face at him in a bar.
Mr Wardell, who was 15 when he discovered his sister's body in the sleepout at the family home, said yesterday: "For him to escape and police to say he's a dangerous person, you'd think he would have been in (higher security)."
Watkins has been classified as a minimum security prisoner for the past five years.
Corrections regional manager Terry Buffery said Watkins had his security classification reduced over time and he had behaved well in prison. He has been eligible for parole since 1998 but rarely turned up to hearings.
At the latest hearing in August, the board declined parole, saying he had committed an "inexpressibly appalling murder" and that his "behaviour continues to be unsettled and uneven".
Watkins was captured about 10.40pm yesterday by Turangi police.
They approached him when he was along SH1, about 3km south of Turangi, and he did not resist, a police spokesman said.
The brutal murder of 26-year-old Ms Wardell, a sickness beneficiary, shocked Tauranga. 

 She had been mentally and physically disabled after suffering serious burns to more than half her body when she was three.
About 40 uniformed police and detectives investigated the case. One week on, territorial soldiers were brought in to join the hunt for Miss Wardell's killer.
At the time, Detective Senior Sergeant Brian McWilliam described the murder as brutal and callous and said the throat wound which led to her death was "savagely inflicted".

Senior Sergeant Carl Purcell recalled working on the case - it was his first serious crime in Tauranga after transferring from Invercargill.
Mr Purcell described Watkins as a "strange person" and said he had fled the area the day of the murder, working in farms in the South Island.
"It was a particularly nasty murder, as he used a knife and roughly slit her throat."

Tauranga Detective Sergeant Pete Blackwell was working as a constable in Tauranga at the time and remembered door knocking homes in the area.
Police said yesterday they considered Watkins dangerous.
They asked anyone travelling through the central North Island to be wary of hitchhikers.
- with NZPA