Loading...
Murders, drug dealers, bank robbers or jail escapees. The stories are different, but the motive is always the same: to stay out of prison. See what pushed these fugitives to their crimes, how they changed their identities, evaded the law and - almost - got away with it.
2010
Robert Spencer, a Jacksonville drug dealer, is known for his temper. One day, he gets angry at his girlfriend and fires a series of shots into her window with the intention of scaring her. She is hit and dies.
Phillip Anthony Williams of Albuquerque murders his ex-girlfriend as she attempts to get into her car after work.
Michael Hess of Tampa, Florida is sentenced to 35 years in prison for a series of convenience store robberies. After seven years as a model prisoner, he escapes and catches a bus to California.
Edward Roberson is sentenced to five years in prison for a string of motor vehicle thefts. A failed escape attempt earns him another 10 years.
Courtenay Savage shoots into the home of her former friend and business partner three times, nearly inflicting life-threatening damage. She is charged with attempted murder.
Recently paroled Raymond Ross steals a car and runs over its owner, teenaged Troy Bowman. Ross takes the stolen car to his hometown of Humboldt, Tennessee, where he strips it for parts.
Marijuana smuggler Steve Lamb and his crew are arrested in the largest marijuana bust in US history. All participants receive 20 years in prison, but are paroled after two years.
Manhattan drug dealer and aspiring rapper Sean Salley plans to rob a rival dealer with his accomplice, Andre Smith. The pair go to an apartment located above the Carnegie Deli and shoot all of the occupants execution style in order to leave no witnesses behind.
The Republic of Texas is a militia group that believes the state of Texas is being held illegally by the United States and supports Texas seceding from the Union. After a contentious hostage situation, police raid the compound for illegal firearms.
Drug enforcer Dallas Slettvet gets into a fight at a home where he is sent and stabs the victim to death with his own knife. Realizing he has taken a life, he panics.
James Clement is selling a boat, and is murdered by two men, the Ellis brothers, posing as potential buyers. The Ellises drive the boat to the Bahamas, where drug dealer Anthony Ragno will sell it on the black market.
Erick Quesada is wanted for the murder of his best friend turned enemy Michael Newhouse in a drive-by shooting in the suburbs of San Antonio. The day after the shooting, Quesada's mother takes him to a relative in Mexico to stay.
After four years of marriage, 25-year-old Randall Zandstra and his wife separate. When he finds her with a new boyfriend, Zastra shoots the new boyfriend and flees.
2010
Michael McGuffey murders his estranged wife in a parking lot in Mt. Vernon, Washington in front of several witnesses and flees to Texas and from there to Mexico City.
2011
Career criminal Christopher Daniel Gay hears his mother is dying and escapes custody again to see her. After spending the night hiding in the woods, Gay steals a pickup truck, abandons it a few hours later, and then steals a Walmart truck.
Michael Alfonso shoots his ex-girlfriend Sumanear Yang in the head. Nine years later, he shot another girlfriend, Genoveva Velasquez, and fled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, finding a job as a bartender.
Jerry Bowen, a drywall contractor in Huntsville, Alabama, murders his ex-wife. Her body is discovered two months later in a river, wrapped in plastic and chains.
In 1975, Michael Wayne Brown is one of a trio of teens committing a string of burglaries. One night, they are in the process of burglarizing an insurance office when they are surprised to see the owner appear.
Gonzalo Martinez shoots three people in gang-related violence and is sentenced to 48 years in prison for the attempted murders. Martinez and three other inmates escape and flee to Denver.
Dorsey Sanders III and Scott Burnside hire John Barrett to kill Dorsey's mother Joanne. Barrett botches the hit, instead killing Joanne's new fiancé and three workers in the process of renovating the house.
Richard Garber murders his neighbor Janio Moraes over a dispute about money. Garber and his girlfriend Anna then head to Las Vegas.
Joe Crouch of Memphis, Tennessee is a compulsive gambler whose addiction has led him to write bad checks for over $80,000. When he discovers that he is facing criminal charges, he confesses his crimes to his wife.
Drug enforcer Marshall Brown is sentenced to life in prison for murdering a witness scheduled to testify against him. After spending 16 years as a model prisoner, he escapes and reenters the drug trade.
Joe Loya lives a double life as a charming man, working as a cook at a restaurant, playing golf, and wearing expensive designer clothes. His friends think highly of him. Meanwhile, he is secretly a career bank robber whom police have dubbed the "Beirut bandit" due to his dark complexion.
Scott Freeburg has been in and out of prison since age 18. While working as an enforcer for a drug dealer, he gets into a fight with his victim, whom he shoots to death with the victim's gun.
Kerry Silvers is serving a 61-year sentence for robbery and other crimes. Four years into his sentence, he and two other inmates escape in a stolen car.
Marvin Carson is a member of a motorcycle gang. One day, a friend who broke up with her boyfriend, a rival biker gang member, asks Carson to go to her ex's house and retrieve her bike. He does so. When the rival biker threatens Carson's friends, Carson shoots one of his rivals.
Following the murder of Earl Mason in a Daytona Beach motel, the three perpetrators, Jason Bowman, William McMinn, and Juanita Liebman, flee to Texas.
While awaiting trial in Oklahoma, Aurlieas Dante McClarty robs a taco shop and uses the money to flee to Los Angeles, then Cleveland, Orlando, Laurel, Maryland, and finally North Carolina.
After spending three days in a holding cell at the Unicoi County, Tennessee jail, Ricky McCurry begs the lone officer on duty for a shower. The officer opens his cell door while McCurry is dressed in nothing but underpants.
Brenda Wynn, a drug dealer in Daytona Beach, is robbed by the man she had employed as a driver. Wynn runs him over and leaves him for dead.
Scott Eizember flees his home state of Michigan after violating a restraining order. He settles in Tulsa, Oklahoma and begins a relationship with a woman named Kathy.
In the Clovis, New Mexico jail, Larry McClendon awaits trial for murder. When his childhood friend Michael England comes to jail on a probation violation, the two plan to escape together.
Henry Lee Marshall of Tampa, Florida, stalks his former girlfriend Martha Leathers, who now has a long-term relationship and five children with George O'Neill.
Steven Jay Russell is fired from his food service job for being gay. He turns to low-level fraud and is sentenced to six months behind bars. After just one month, he escapes and flees to Florida,
While working at an Albertsons in Dallas, Dennis Wayne Hope formulates a plan to rob his employer. By posing as an employee of an armored truck company, Hope collects cash deposits from several Albertsons in the area.
Four friends rob the Jade East restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, from which one of them has just been fired. During the robbery, they kill the owners, Arthur and Amy Lee, along with employee Kai Yin Chuey, and steal the Lees' jewelry.
After spending 10 months in jail, Dominick Reddick escapes from a transport van after it breaks down along a Florida highway.
After robbing a bank in Florida, Kenneth "Speedy" Raulerson flees to Alaska to and gets a job working on a crab boat for a season.
2011
A neighbor calls 911 when she smells smoke coming from an apartment shared by Ricky Sleight and William Baldi. The police find Baldi's dead body, but Sleight escapes by riding freight trains across the country. The FBI turns to the media for help.
Abraham Cavazos shoots a man at a party and flees to Juarez, Mexico to disappear. Cavazos uses multiple women to support him in Mexico. He changes identities, locations and girlfriends, but it's not enough to keep authorities from tracking him down.
An Oklahoma drug lord who was wanted for murder and kidnapping fled to Mexico to stay out of prison.
JohnnyRay Gasca, a successful video pirate, scams the film industry while partying with celebrities and hiding from the law. Gasca went to prison for attempted murder and U.S. Marshals believe Gasca's illicit lifestyle will soon turn violent.
Jermaine LeBron and a group of friends murder a man in Florida and steal his expensive truck. LeBron then teams up with Howard Kendall to continue the crime spree. Their plan unravels when the friends confess to the murder and rats LeBron out to police.
Fired from his job as a fashion writer, Peter Braunstein vows to take revenge on the fashionistas who snubbed him. Posing as a firefighter, he kidnaps a co-worker and terrorizes her for 16 hours before leading detectives on a multi-state chase.
A freak accident threatens to send a criminal-turned-car salesman back to jail.
In 1985 Kaysie Dudley's mother gets fired from her job as a caregiver for an elderly widow and the pair plot to steal her rings as revenge. When the 77-year-old woman unexpectedly puts up a fight, Dudley resorts to the unthinkable -cold blooded murder.
With seven escapes under his belt, Frankie Lee Bass will stop at nothing to be free. While facing five life sentences for a spree of Florida robberies, Bass makes a daring escape and goes on the run.
By the age of 17, William Van Poyck is convicted of robbery and serves 6 years behind bars before escaping from a maximum security prison. In 1987, he prepares for his most daring crime yet; ambushing a prison transport van.
In July of 2009, Valerie Castellano robs a bank in rural Indiana. She flees with her three children and her girlfriend to Mexico. Back in Indiana, police focus their attention on Valerie's mother, hoping she will be the key to her daughter's capture.
A con artist keeps reinventing himself.
Man learns the true cost of being on the run.
2013
In Miami, Florida, teenage Randy Baggett is sentenced to 26 years to life in prison for killing his abusive stepfather. He escapes from the high security prison and treks through the woods as police dogs search for him.
A pair of friends and criminals escape from prison in 2009 and lead police on a manhunt across the Southeast.
Posing as a veteran and preying on women to get cash, cars, and even a house, Jerrod Durr finds himself in a multistate game of cat and mouse with cops.
Walter Rhodes and 2 other suspects were involved with the murder of 2 cops. Rhodes agrees to testify against the others for a lesser sentence and is released in 18 years. Shortly after, he violates his parole - but refuses to ever go back to prison.
19-year-old Kylen Padgett's escalating crimes get him arrested. After a jury acquits him for attempted murder, he reverts back to his old ways by robbing wealthy home owners. The crime-spree launches a county-wide manhunt.
Stolen weapons dealer, Conan Helsley, robs a pawnshop with his girlfriend and older brother.
After getting arrested for robbery, Robert Askew runs from a work camp and goes back to stealing to make a living. Askew eventually gets caught again, but he escapes from jail during a hurricane and goes on a crime spree, breaking into vacation homes.
In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Tony Darwin and his group of 18 friends make their living smuggling marijuana from Jamaica into the United States. All are members of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, which uses marijuana as a sacrament.
2014
David Corbin is a career criminal. After a stint in prison, Corbin launches a crime wave, stealing cars and selling them for a profit. But when a jealous girlfriend rats him out, Corbin is caught and sent to prison where he pulls off a daring escape.
In Joplin, Missouri, 19-year-old Terry Banks kills his 17-year-old girlfriend's husband with help from his friend Matt Meyers. Meyers gets 67 years in prison, while Banks is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Tired of receiving bad treatment from his wealthy clients, country club tennis instructor Brian Maurice Fuller decides to start robbing them.
At John B. Connally Unit, a maximum-security prison near Kennedy, Texas, seven inmates craft and execute an elaborate plan for escape. Once free, the escapees hide out in a Dallas-Fort Worth area motel.
On October 19, 2005, Scott Webb kills his mother Margaret while in a drug-fueled rage. Scott and his wife Michelle, both hardened addicts, steal a truck from Scott's former work and go on the run.
Rondell Reed is released from prison in 2010 after serving 21 years there. Reed moves to Kentucky and finds work in an auto repair shop. On April 16, 2011, Reed's boss pulls a gun on him during an argument.
In February 2003, brothers Roger and David DeLucenay are both incarcerated in Elkhart County Jail. They work together to escape and drive six hours to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where they work to raise money to travel and visit their children.
Harold Laird and two of his friends murder Laird's stepfather Red and Red's girlfriend. They plan to go to Pennsylvania, but are arrested when police find them driving a stolen truck.
2016
Peter Gibbs faces a long stretch in prison for a string of robberies but he refuses to go down without a fight.
Bank robber Steven Ray Milam is called the Handsome Guy Bandit as he makes a costly mistake forcing him to leave his family and go on the run.
Jimmy Maxwell's volatile nature sees him being a menace to authorities every time they manage to corner him after he escapes from prison.
Albert Paul ends up being arrested for murder and spends the next twenty years pulling off daring prison breaks only to get captured following every attempt.
Whilst serving a 60-year sentence for a crime he says he didn't commit, Russell Kerr plots with a fellow inmate an elaborate escap
Robert Nielsen escapes from a Florida prison, where he has been serving a 25 year sentence for an armed robbery he committed when he was 16.
In South Los Angeles, truck driver Jaime Jones slips and falls at work, suffering a herniated disc in his lower back, forcing him to quit. Facing foreclosure on his home, Jones turns to bank robbery to pay his bills and becomes known as the "Neck Brace Bandit".
In March 2007, Darryl Norris is paroled after serving eight years of his 15-year sentence for two counts of armed robbery. On April 15, 2008, Norris and an accomplice named Robert rob a J&A store, where Robert shoots and kills a store clerk.
Andrew Thomas Heim of Pittsburgh is serving 4–10 years in prison for battery and assault. In prison, he recruits five other inmates to form a plan of escape.
In El Paso, Texas, Michael Kidd and his two friends Kevin Crandall and Marcus Thompson decide to fund their drug habits by robbing homes.
2012
Robert Jeffery loses his entire drug business in a fire. In order to pay off his supplier, he robs a bank but is arrested. He escapes from jail and survives by dealing drugs and pulling scams, until he meets a woman and moves to the suburbs. But soon the FBI finds him and corners him at a busy subway station.
After killing his step-mom and three young brothers, James Wiley is given a life sentence. He escapes into the Wyoming wilderness and hides under the wheel of a big rig, holding on for dear life as the truck heads down the highway. He calls a friend for help at a rest area but gets caught and sent back to prison.
Nicholas Johnson is a teenage robber terrorizing the streets of Portland, Oregon. After getting caught, he plans an elaborate escape and slips past the prison’s high-level security system. With the help of his family, Johnson stays hidden from the law until a tip leads police right to his whereabouts.
Jerry Wright builds a booming meth business in the Tennessee hills until his makeshift lab blows up. During a fight over money, Wright kills a man and runs to his sister’s in Ohio but gets caught. He escapes from prison but can't handle the stress of being a fugitive. He is soon captured and sent back to jail.
Mark and Maverick Maher are teenage punks who form their own militia -- a band of youths who rob houses and break into cars. After sending a threatening audio tape to police, they go on the run, living in the Florida swamps and eventually leading police on a lengthy chase through an upscale neighborhood.
William Alderman robs to support his girlfriend and her 3-year-old daughter. The trio heads to Idaho, breaking into vacation homes and using the little girl to help carry out the crimes. During a botched robbery, a man is killed and the family runs but gets caught during a takedown at a roadside motel.
David Harden is a clean-cut businessman living a double life as a burglar. His drug habit forces him to commit more daring crimes until he gets caught. He runs to Costa Rica, pulling scams until a friend turns on him. After getting deported, he sneaks out of prison hidden in a trash bin to live as a fugitive.
Patsy Jones is the leader of a band of thieves, targeting tourists leaving the Miami airport by robbing and carjacking them at gunpoint. One night, a tourist fails to stop and Jones shoots and kills him. She hides in an abandoned apartment until the intense manhunt leads the police right to her doorstep.
Two stories of fugitives on the run. First, a scam artist cons aspiring artists out of millions. But when one victim demands justice, a high-profile manhunt ensues. Then, a modern day Bonnie and Clyde eludes police until a slip-up leads to their doorstep.
Tony Toste
Detective Mederos/SWAT Team SGT.
Bill Ratner
Narrator
Quint Gabriel
FBI Agent, Intelligence analyst, Police Officer, Prisioner 2
