Law enforcement officers are seen near the area of Long Shoals Road and Texas Chapel Road in Putnam County Tuesday. That location is where the two prison inmates disarmed the corrections officers, subsequently shooting them to death about 6:45 a.m.

EATONTON — A pair of state prisoners who overpowered two corrections officers on a transport bus before shooting them to death outside of Eatonton remained at-large Tuesday evening, authorities say.

Earlier in the afternoon, authorities learned that the escapees broke into a house on Cox Road in Madison and stole some clothing, reportedly leaving behind the bloody prison garb they had been wearing.

The manhunt for the escapees, both of whom are described as white males, had moved into Madison and parts of Morgan County by mid-afternoon.

The search for the escapees, who are considered armed and extremely dangerous, involved more than 100 local, state and federal law enforcement officers.

Both of the prison guards lived in Milledgeville. The slain guards, both sergeants, were identified as Curtis Billue, 58, and Christopher Monica, 42, both of whom were assigned to Baldwin State Prison in Milledgeville, according to authorities.

Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, meanwhile, identified the prison bus escapees as Ricky Dubose, 24; and Donnie Russell Rowe, 43.

The men were on a transport bus heading from Hancock State Prison near Sparta to Jackson State Prison in Butts County. The men disarmed the corrections officers, subsequently shooting them to death about 6:45 a.m.

The escapees commandeered the car of a Greene County man, Phillip Beasley, who pulled up behind the transport bus because he thought it had broken down between Long Shoals Road and Texas Chapel Road along Georgia Route 16 in Putnam County. Beasley was not harmed and later went to a nearby store where he talked with Putnam County deputies and detectives a short time later.

Beasley said his 2004 Honda Civic was taken from him at gunpoint by the two escapees, who were described as wearing bloody state corrections shirts and pants at the time.

The slayings of the prison guards, one of whom was driving the large bus with 33 inmates aboard, led to an intensified air and ground search by local, state and federal law enforcement officers in the area.

Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills and Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Greg Dozier both said Tuesday it still had not been determined exactly how the escapees managed to reach and overpower the guards on the transport bus.

“I saw two brutally murdered corrections officers, that’s what I saw,” Sills said after being asked by a reporter to describe the crime scene. “I have their blood on my shoes.”

Sills, who is spearheading the investigation because the slayings of the state prison guards happened in his jurisdiction, got a head start on the prisoners after their escape by using Beasley’s cellphone, which the prisoners tossed out of the stolen car along Ga. Route 16, commonly referred to as Sparta Highway.

The cellphone later was found on the side of the roadway in a grassy area.

“We are still desperately looking for these two individuals,” Sills said at an afternoon press conference. “They are armed with 9 mm pistols that were taken from these correctional officers. They are dangerous beyond description. If anyone sees them or comes into contact, they need to call 911 immediately.”

Sills said the two inmates, along with 31 other inmates were inside a caged area of the bus when Dubose and Rowe made their escape.

“How they got through the locks and things up to that area, I do not know,” Sills said.

Protocol is to have two armed corrections officers on the bus, but the officers don’t wear bullet proof vests during transfers, Dozier said.

“We lost two of our fellow officers, two of our kin,” Dozier told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. “We see our officers as our family.”

Officer Monica, 42, was married, and had worked for the DOC since October 2009, while Officer Billue, 58, had worked for the DOC since July 2007.

When Billue’s brother, Bruce, heard about what had happened he left his home in McIntyre and drove to the area of the crime scene.

He talked with The Union-Recorder a few minutes after he arrived.

“My brother was the epitome of a state employee,” Bruce Billue said, noting that his brother always went out of his way to help fellow corrections officers any way he could.

He said Curtis Billue, a divorcee, was the father of two children and had worked for the Georgia Department of Corrections for the past 11 years and enjoyed his job.

“He was a graduate of Clark Atlanta University,” Billue said of his brother, Curtis.

He said he was going to be all right despite the tragedy because he relied on his faith in Jesus Christ as his higher power.

Sheriff Sills and the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office are being assisted in the manhunt by more than a dozen local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. They include: Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, Greene County Sheriff’s Office, Taliaferro County Sheriff’s Office, Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, Eatonton Police Department and Madison Police Department.

Other law enforcement agencies involved in the manhunt include Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Department of Corrections, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and U.S. Marshals.

Dubose, who stands 6-feet-1 and weighs 140 lbs., has brown hair and blue eyes.

Dubose was serving a possible 20-year sentence for theft, armed robbery, and aggravated assault in connection with a 2014 case in Elbert County.

He had previously been convicted of theft, entering a vehicle and multiple counts of financial identity stemming from a series of crimes in 2010.

Rowe, meanwhile, stands 6-feet-1, weighs 181 lbs., and has brown hair and blue eyes.

Rowe, who also is known by the alias “Whiskey,” was serving a possible life-sentence without parole for two counts of aggravated assault, one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and two counts of armed robbery following crimes in 2001 that happened in Macon-Bibb County.

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the escapees should call 911 immediately, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office at 706-485-8557 or the FBI at 404-679-9000.