Authorities Tuesday continued to look for a convicted murderer and his son following their walk-away escape from a Casper work-release program over the weekend.

Shannon Parazoo, who was serving a 20-to-30 year sentence for second-degree murder, and his son, Alonzo Howard Durgin, were reported missing to the Natrona County Sheriff's Department Saturday.

"We are looking everywhere, to be honest," sheriff's Sgt. Mark Sellers said Tuesday afternoon. "Our efforts are not concentrated on one area."

The missing pair have prompted a lot of phone calls to the sheriff's department, he said.

Parazoo and Durgin, who has convictions for aggravated robbery and aggravated assault, were inmates in the Casper Re-Entry Center's work-release program. Both arrived at the center last year.

The re-entry center is operated by a New Jersey company under a contract with the Wyoming Department of Corrections.

Parazoo, 43, called the center Friday night to say he was going to his job at a Casper welding company, but wasn't there Saturday morning when a van from the center went to pick him up. Durgin, 28, walked away from the center sometime Friday evening. He had a pass that allowed him to be out with his mother, but didn't return.

To apply for the work-release program, inmates like Parazoo and Durgin have to meet 14 criteria set up by the Wyoming Department of Corrections, said department spokeswoman Melinda Brazzale. They must be escape-free for three years and be within two years of eligibility for parole. They must also be capable of working and have shown "notable progress" in their behavior and attitude during confinement.

"We don't want dangerous people out in the community that are going to jeopardize the safety of the community," Brazzale said.

The program provides a transition period for inmates from incarceration to independence, she said.

Inmates serving time for first-degree murder or attempted murder are not eligible for the program. Parazoo was convicted of second-degree murder in 1985 for the beating death of a Gillette man. The following year, he was convicted for an attempted escape.

A community corrections board - made up of members from law enforcement, the district attorney's office and the community - decides whether to accept or deny an inmate's application, Brazzale said. A caseworker also reviews the application.

Parazoo would have finished his sentence in September 2010. Durgin would have finished his in October 2015.

Parazoo's criminal history runs back to at least the early 1980s, according to Star-Tribune reports from the time of his murder conviction. He pleaded guilty in California to unlawful imprisonment and aggravated assault after he fled from a drug bust to a public beach, where he briefly held a 12-year-old boy hostage. He went to prison from 1982 to 1984.

He landed in a Wyoming jail in November of that year for a parole violation. Forty days after his release, he killed the Gillette man.

Reach Joshua Wolfson at josh.wolfson@casperstartribune.net or at (307) 266-0582.