TALLAHASSEE – Two recaptured killers who walked away from life terms in a Florida prison had “a lot of help” obtaining forged release papers, and more arrests are coming, the head of the state’s law enforcement agency said on Sunday.

The two convicted murderers, released from the Apalachicola Correctional Institute on forged documents that reduced their life-without-parole sentences, were recaptured on Saturday at a motel in Panama City Beach, located on the Florida Panhandle.

Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker were believed to be waiting to be transported to another state when they were found, Gerald Bailey, commissioner of the Department of Law Enforcement, said at a news briefing.

“They had to have had help, and a lot of help, to get to where they were last night,” Bailey said.

Walker and Jenkins, both 34, had brief, routine court appearances on Sunday and were being held in jail in Bay County, Florida.

After questioning the pair, police were seeking several “associates,” Bailey said.

Authorities declined to discuss details of how the bogus release papers came to be created, but said an assistant prosecutor grew suspicious of paperwork that had been signed by officials who do not normally handle sentence reductions.

Authorities said that from now on, the state prison system has told court clerks to check with judges before accepting any sentence-reduction or release papers bearing their signatures.