Woman's Obituary Helps Agents Catch Her Son, Who Escaped From Prison in 1981

A fugitive who had managed to remain free for decades after busting out of an Oklahoma prison in 1981 has been recaptured.

While that's enough for a headline on its own, the way authorities said they finally rooted him out makes the story even more remarkable.

The U.S. Marshals Service said Thursday that 58-year-old Stephen Michael Paris was taken into custody thanks, in part, to his mother's obituary.

The agency says investigators tracked him down in Texas after a newspaper obituary for his mother listed a son in Houston named Stephen Michael Chavez, according to The Associated Press.

Nearly 40 years after he escaped from the Jess Dunn Correctional Center in Muskogee, Okla., while serving a nine-year drug-related sentence, Paris was arrested at a Houston office.

Fingerprints confirmed his identity, The AP reported.

RELATED STORIES