INDEPENDENCE, Minn. (FOX 9) - Authorities are searching for an inmate that escaped from a jail in northern Minnesota on Tuesday.

Inmate escapes in northern MN

What we know:

The St. Louis County Sheriff's Office is searching for 40-year-old Michael Todd Hart. Deputies say Hart escaped from custody at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center on Tuesday evening.

Deputies say Hart is 5-foot-10-inches tall, with brown hair, and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a yellow sweatshirt, grey T-shirt, and blue pants.

Deputies think he is headed north from the facility towards Independence, Minn. An active search for Hart is underway.

Previous conviction

The backstory:

It's not clear why Hart was being held in the facility. Court records show he was sentenced in August for a domestic as

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