The Natrona County Sheriff's Department is searching for a convicted murderer and his son who escaped from a Casper work-release program over the weekend.

Deputies are looking for Shannon Parazoo, serving a 20- to 30-year sentence for killing a Gillette man, and his son, Alonzo Howard Durgin, who's also a convicted felon. Both men were reported missing Saturday.

Both were inmates at the Casper Re-entry Center. The center houses work-release, drug court and drug treatment programs.

Parazoo, 43, signed out of the center at 9:20 a.m. on Friday. He checked in with the center twice during the afternoon, and called again that night to say he was going to his job at a Casper welding company, said Natrona County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Sellers.

Someone from the center went to pick Parazoo up the following morning, but was told he didn't come to work the previous night, Sellers said.

Parazoo had been at the center since August, said Pat Odell, adult community corrections coordinator for the Wyoming Department of Corrections. Prior to that, he had been incarcerated at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins.

In addition to his 1985 murder conviction, Parazoo was convicted of attempting to escape in 1986.

Parazoo has been eligible for patrol since September, Odell said.

The Department of Corrections contracts with Community Education Centers, Inc., of New Jersey, to operate the re-entry center. The company, which operates similar facilities in seven states, is reviewing the incident, said spokesman Bill Palatucci.

"From what I can tell, our staff followed all the policies and procedures," he said.

The Department of Corrections decides which inmates get sent to the center, he explained. Inmates typically get more privileges the longer they are in the program.

Durgin, 28, walked away from the center sometime on Friday evening. He had a pass that allowed him to be with his mother, but he did not return, Palatucci said.

Durgin had been at the center since May, the same month he was first eligible for parole. He had previously been at the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle.

In 1997, he was convicted of aggravated assault and aggravated robbery in Fremont County, according to the Department of Corrections.

Parazoo drives a white 2000 Dodge van with temporary plates, according to the sheriff's department. Durgin has a maroon 1998 Oldsmobile Cutlass with Wyoming license plate 1-8CDZ.

In April 1985, Parazoo pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge for the beating death of a 40-year-old Gillette man.

At his sentencing, Parazoo told the judge that he got in a fight with Ronald Clay Tyler after the two spent a night drinking at a Casper bar. Tyler died of hypothermia after he was left unconscious on a rural road near the Natrona-Converse county line.

Parazoo made news again in December of that year for what police described as an escape attempt. While at a service station on Interstate 80 near Rawlins, Parazoo allegedly grabbed a deputy while the two were sitting in a car while another inmate was using the restroom. Deputies were able to subdue him.

Afterwards, authorities speculated that another inmate had persuaded Parazoo to attempt an escape in the hope that one of the guards would kill him.

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