MARYSVILLE — Inmate Rhyan Vasquez simply slipped away.

The 19-year-old walked through an unlocked door. He took the stairs, and moments later, he was free from the Marysville city jail.

That was Sept. 22. For 44 hours — nearly two days — no one at the jail noticed he was gone.

That’s because jail staff had stopped doing head counts, an internal investigation found.

Vasquez’ absence was discovered only when a public defender showed up on Sept. 24, and custody staff couldn’t find his client. Police caught up with Vasquez two days later.

“This escape should have never happened,” Police Chief Rick Smith said in a recent interview.

An internal investigation by the Marysville Police Department found widespread complacency in the jail, in addition to negligence by the officer who was distracted during the escape, public records show. Altogether, 10 people received some level of discipline, including the commander who reports directly to the chief.

The internal investigation wrapped up in mid-April. The police department released the documents on May 28, six weeks after a public records request from The Daily Herald.

Jail officers had stopped doing head counts, in violation of policy, Smith said. The records don’t say when that changed. Some of the officers told investigators they had never done head counts.

“Officers failed to recognize that the priority of the jail is safety and security,” Smith wrote in an April discipline letter.

The officer who was in the room when Vasquez escaped was suspended without pay for three days. Police Cmdr. Wendy Wade, who began overseeing the jail in spring 2013 among other duties, was suspended without pay for two days.

“We have to hold ourselves accountable,” Wade said.

The investigation found that years ago, staff had started counting meals or linens instead of inmates, Wade said. Staff also compared a digital jail roster with a handwritten list of names, instead of doing head counts. It had become normal for their counts not to match up, and that should have been a red flag, the chief said.

“Those procedures then became commonplace and were passed down from tenured officers to new officers creating institutionalized complacency,” Wade wrote in the records.

Interior doors between jail areas and the city courtroom also were left unlocked, and more supervision was needed in the jail, the investigation determined.

The findings were reviewed by Mayor Jon Nehring, City Administrator Gloria Hirashima said.

“The city views this as a real significant breach of performance,” she said.

In all, 10 staffers were investigated, including a sergeant who was put on a performance plan for further monitoring. The 10, all of whom had worked in the jail during the escape or in the days Vasquez’ absence went unnoticed, received a discipline letter in their personnel files.

The employees did not appeal the discipline. The investigation did not find any criminal actions by staff.

In Snohomish County, inmates awaiting felony hearings or serving felony sentences lasting less than a year are kept in the sheriff’s lockup in Everett. Marysville and Lynnwood operate city jails for inmates in misdemeanor cases.

The Marysville jail can hold up to 57 inmates. Each shift now is required to conduct a head count at least twice. Two officers must separately do each count and compare notes, the chief said. Spot checks are done to make sure that happens. Two officers also are required now for moving inmates between areas of the building.

The investigation found that when Vasquez escaped, another inmate had blocked the officer’s line of sight while using the hand sanitizer on the officer’s desk. The records don’t say if the distraction was coordinated or coincidence.

The investigation was focused on staff actions, the chief said.

The city has 13 custody officers in the jail, plus two more who work in the court. Two of the positions are sergeants, though only one of those was filled before the escape. The department has asked Police Lt. Larry Buell to provide additional leadership in the jail.

The escape happened while eight inmates were being brought back from a Bible study on a Monday evening. The officer in charge of that inmate movement later admitted he was distracted and took responsibility for what happened, the chief said.

That officer, who received the three-day suspension, has worked in corrections for more than a decade, including seven years in the Marysville jail, records show. He had no previous discipline on the job.

After the escape — but before Vasquez was discovered missing — a pair of black-and-white-striped jail pants were found outside the station and turned over to police. At the time, custody staff said no inmates were missing.

Before the escape, Vasquez was being held for misdemeanor warrants. He had been scheduled to be transferred to the Snohomish County Jail to be held for investigation of first-degree robbery. He had punched an acquaintance in Everett, breaking the man’s jaw, and stole his phone and wallet.

Vasquez, now 20, was convicted of that robbery and the Marysville escape. He was sentenced in April to four years in state prison.

Major policy changes weren’t needed in the jail, Wade said. Instead, the focus now is on making sure existing procedures are followed, and that everyone knows there will be no “slipping back into complacency,” she said.

Programs such as Bible study now take place inside the jail rather than in adjacent rooms.

“Now all the doors are locked all the time,” Wade said.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.