The search for an Ohio man believed to have been carjacked in Vicksburg by two Louisiana prison escapees continued today, with authorities in Tennessee saying they found blood in the man’s rental car.

David Michael Cupps, 53, 87 Barley Corn Drive, Sunbury, had been on an overnight trip to Vicksburg for contract work at Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Station. He was last seen Monday in Vicksburg near the U.S. 61 South-Pemberton Square Boulevard intersection and last spoke with his wife by phone that afternoon around 4, police Chief Walter Armstrong said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Cupps said he was on his way to check in to a Pemberton Square Boulevard motel but never made it, said the chief.

Tuesday night, his rental car was found near Jackson, Tenn. Authorities there say blood was found in the car.

“Due to that and other evidence found in his vehicle, we believe Mr. Cupps has met with foul play,” Vicksburg police Lt. Bobby Stewart said this morning.

Armstrong said investigators believe the escapees, Ricky Wedgeworth, 36, and Darian Pierce, 33, were in Vicksburg Monday morning. Both were serving 25-year sentences and had been assigned as trusties on a work detail at the state police headquarters in Baton Rouge. They were noticed missing around 2 p.m. Friday during an inmate check.

Authorities at the compound say they stole a white, state-issued van which was later found near St. Francisville, according to a statement released by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

It was not known how they reached Vicksburg, but reports were received Monday around 10:55 a.m. that two men matching their description were seen on Pemberton Square Boulevard, near BancorpSouth and the Super 8 Motel near Halls Ferry Road. Police searched the area, Armstrong said, but did not find the men.

Later, Cupps was headed to the same area, Stewart said, and it’s believed that he came in contact with Wedgeworth and Pierce and that they carjacked him.

“It is still a missing person case,” Armstrong said. “We are continuing to search in and around the Vicksburg and Warren County area for Mr. Cupps.”

Vicksburg police asked for assistance from the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, and their helicopters searched an area from Interstate 55 to the Mississippi River Wednesday evening, looking for abandoned vehicles or other unusual activity in wooded areas, Stewart said.

Cupps, a nuclear safety inspector, arrived in Mississippi Monday morning, rented a car at the airport in Jackson and worked that day at the Grand Gulf plant near Port Gibson. He is 5-foot-10, about 210 pounds, with salt-and-pepper hair and a groomed beard and mustache. He was expected back at Grand Gulf Tuesday and was to return to Ohio that night.

His rental car, a red 2011 Buick Enclave, was stopped near Jackson, Tenn., by a Tennessee state trooper who recognized it as one placed on the National Crime Information Center after the investigation got under way.

Two men inside the Enclave jumped out of the vehicle and ran into the woods. They are believed to have been Wedgeworth and Pierce.

It is not known if the two are armed, but they are extremely dangerous, Armstrong said. It is believed they are on foot near Jackson, Tenn., where schools were placed on lockdown and police-supervised dismissal Wednesday, and authorities searched house to house that night.

Wedgeworth, a Memphis native, was convicted of armed robbery in Louisiana in 2006. He also has a criminal history in Shelby County, Tenn., police said. He is white, 5-foot-8 and about 145 pounds with reddish brown hair and brown eyes. He has tattoos on his arms, chest and abdomen.

Pierce, of Bogalusa, La., was serving a sentence for attempted second-degree murder. He is white, 5-foot-11 and about 145 pounds with brown hair and eyes and tattooed fingers on his right hand.

Anyone who has seen Cupps or has any information is urged to call Stewart at 601-831-1168 or the Vicksburg Police Department at 601-636-2511.