On the morning of March 12, 1975, after 28 years, Andy disappears from his locked cell. After searching the prison grounds and surrounding area without finding any sign of him, Norton looks in Andy's cell and discovers that the current poster pasted to his wall (Linda Ronstadt) covers a man-sized hole – Andy had used his rock hammer not just to shape rocks, but also to slowly chip away at the wall. Once through the wall, he broke into a sewage pipe, crawled through it, emerged into a stream 500 yards beyond the prison's outer perimeter, and vanished. His footprints were found near the creek he emerged into, and a day later his prison uniform was found two miles away. Norton resigns in disgrace shortly afterward. In September 1975, Red receives a blank postcard from McNary, Texas, a "tiny town" near the Mexican border, and surmises that Andy crossed the border there.