‘A lifetime of victims’: U.S. Marshal reflects on 20 years of chasing Northeast Ohio fugitives

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Scavenging by way of rubbish on a tree garden, U.S. Marshals picked by way of scraps of paper that had been put by way of a shredder. After months of connecting the puzzle of items of paper, officers discovered an electronic mail written on a snippet of a doc that allowed them to trace down their suspect.

The discarded paper path led officers to Mexico and a significant arrest.

“We received him,” U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott mentioned.

Thomas Longo was arrested in 2006 after detectives discovered a cache of weapons in his home years earlier whereas investigating a sexual assault case. A former lawyer, prosecutor and judicial candidate, Longo died in jail in 2008.

Longo joined practically 52,000 individuals have been arrested by the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Activity Pressure since its inception in 2003, Elliott mentioned. Of these, 2,037 accused of homicide. The unit marks its 20-year milestone subsequent summer time. In that point, it has turn into a mannequin for departments throughout the nation.

“There’s all the time extra victims than you understand … a lifetime of victims,” Elliott mentioned. “And once we remedy a case, it’s nice as a result of we’re bringing closure. However we by no means rejoice; we’re by no means leaping for pleasure. It’s simply time to maneuver on to the subsequent case.”

Listed below are among the most notable fugitives the unit has tracked:

Longest manhunt

In 1969, a younger financial institution teller left his job at Society Nationwide Financial institution with $215,000 in stolen money. Theodore Conrad, who was 20 on the time, pulled off one of many largest financial institution heists in Cleveland historical past and subsequently one of many longest manhunts the U.S. Marshals Service has dealt with.

Final yr, Elliott discovered {that a} man named Thomas Randele had handed away within the Boston space. The obituary included key particulars of the person’s life. Earlier than he died, Randele admitted that he was Ted Conrad. Elliott interviewed Randele’s spouse, and he or she confirmed it.

“The obituary gave info that we knew was very acquainted to Ted Conrad,” Elliott mentioned.

Elliott mentioned fixing the thriller his father John had investigated many years in the past as a deputy marshal was rewarding. John Elliott handed away in 2020.

“He used to speak about this case across the dinner desk. To him, it was private,” he mentioned. “It means loads that he was in a position to get credit score for it.”

Longest unsolved case

In December 1973, Lester Eubanks walked away from the custody of the Ohio Division of Rehabilitation and Correction whereas on a short lived honor furlough to go Christmas purchasing in Columbus.

On the time of his escape, Eubanks was serving a life sentence for the November 1965 homicide and tried rape of 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener. Eubanks had been sentenced to the loss of life penalty, however his sentence was commuted to life in jail with out parole in 1972.

Marshals are providing a $50,000 reward for info that results in the arrest of Eubanks.

“You must have the perspective of ‘we’re going to catch you,’ ” mentioned Anne Murphy, the primary girl to oversee the duty pressure. “We’re operating as exhausting as we are able to to meet up with fugitives earlier than they get too far-off, or we’re closing their world down so there’s nowhere to go.”

On Eubanks, Elliott mentioned, “We’re following up on leads, and we’re going to seize him.”

The Shawshank fugitive

Frank Freshwaters eluded legislation enforcement for practically six many years.

Freshwaters, then of Akron, on July 3, 1957, hit and killed an Akron husband and father whereas driving greater than 50 miles per hour in a 35-zone on South Arlington Street. Freshwaters was sentenced April 25,1958, to 5 years of probation after pleading responsible to second-degree manslaughter.

He violated his probation, and a decide sentenced him to twenty years in jail. He started serving his sentence on the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, the jail the place the film “The Shawshank Redemption” was filmed years later.

He escaped from the Sandusky Honor Farm Sept. 30,1959, and he was dubbed “The Shawshank Fugitive.”

Freshwaters was arrested in 2015 after confessing his id to officers at his trailer in Melbourne, Florida.

“They confirmed him a jail picture of himself from 56 years in the past,” Elliott mentioned. “The officers requested if he knew the particular person within the picture, and he mentioned, ‘I haven’t seen him in a very long time.’ “

Fb killer

On Easter 2017, Robert Godwin Jr., a 74-year-old father of 9 and grandfather of 14 – walked into the trail of a gunman about 2 p.m. on East 93rd Road, simply south of Interstate 90 in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood.

Earlier within the day, 37-year-old Steve Stephens, ranted in a video on Fb about his depressing life and threatened to movie himself taking pictures somebody and submit it to his Fb web page.

Afterward, Stephens bolted from Cleveland after the slaying. Marshals and police tracked him to Erie, Pennsylvania, the place he died by suicide.

A group’s affect

Murphy mentioned certainly one of her extra memorable circumstances concerned the assistance of residents.

In 2018, a federal warrant was issued for a 27-year-old Mansfield man in reference to Fb posts threatening to shoot then-President Donald Trump, a district lawyer in Pennsylvania and a police chief.

Shawn Christy despatched officers on a weeklong search by way of woods after abandoning a stolen truck and fleeing.

Authorities, together with marshals and police, discovered Christy hiding in a cabin at a 183-acre camp in Mansfield, Murphy mentioned.

She mentioned residents introduced socks and different dry clothes to legislation enforcement officers throughout the search as they have been compelled to traipse by way of mud for days in search of Christy. She mentioned she was grateful for the group’s affect within the arrest.