A man serving life in prison on human-trafficking charges escaped from a maximum-security prison in north Alabama Wednesday, officials said.

Corey Aris Davis, 30, was not in his cell at St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville during a security check at 8 p.m. CST, the Department of Corrections said in a statement.

Members of the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office and tracking dogs from the Alabama Department of Corrections probed the Lauderdale area Thursday after a resident notified authorities, the Times Daily reported. The woman said she believed she saw the inmate at an intersection in town.

Davis was assigned to a work detail inside the prison and other inmates and workers at the prison saw him that day, the statement said. Investigators were working to determine how he escaped.

Davis was sentenced to life in prison in 2017 for two charges of human trafficking in Lauderdale County, records showed.

A court document showed prosecutors dismissed other charges including sexual torture, rape, sodomy, kidnapping and burglary because Davis pleaded guilty.

The inmate previously served time on charges that included theft, arson, burglary and breaking and entering a vehicle. State officials sought a life sentence under Alabama’s habitual offender law.

The St. Clair Correctional Facility has beds for 1,075 inmates, according to a statistical report from October.

Davis is described as being 5-foot-6, 150 pounds with strawberry-blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing white when he escaped. The Alabama Department of Corrections has asked the public not to approach the inmate if they see him but to contact local law enforcement.