미국에서 36년 동안 숨어 살던 탈옥수가 붙잡혀 화제가 됐다.

5일(현지시간) 미국 캘리포니아주 샌디에이고 지역 언론에 따르면 샌디에이고 경찰은 1977년 미시간주 교도소에서 탈옥한 주디 린 헤이먼(60)을 검거해 구금 중이다.

샌디에이고 경찰은 조만간 헤이먼을 미시간주 교정국에 넘길 예정이다.

헤이먼은 1976년 절도죄로 기소돼 징역 16개월에서 24개월을 선고받고 디트로이트 인근 입실랜티 교도소에서 10개월 복역한 뒤 탈옥했다.

샌디에이고 경찰이 미시간주 교정국에서 연락을 받고 샌디에이고 시내에 있는 헤이먼의 집을 찾아갔을 때 헤이먼은 자신의 이름은 제이미 루이스라고 거짓말을 했다.

그러나 대화를 나누는 도중 수상한 점이 한두가지가 아니었고 미시간주 교정국에서 보내온 옛 사진 속 헤이먼의 눈이 똑같다는 사실을 알아채고 추궁 끝에 자백을 받았다고 경찰은 밝혔다.

헤이먼을 검거한 케빈 메이어 경위는 “20대 때 찍은 사진이지만 눈은 하나도 변함이 없었다”고 말했다.

헤이먼이 40년에 가까운 세월 동안 어떻게 신분을 감추고 살아왔는지는 아직 자세히 드러나지 않았다.

경찰이 헤이먼을 연행할 때 현장을 방문한 31살 난 아들조차 어머니가 탈옥수라는 사실을 알고 어안이 벙벙해 했다.

미시간주 교정국이 헤이먼의 은신처를 파악한 경위도 아직 밝혀지지 않았다.

메이어 경위는 헤이먼이 자신을 찾아낸 수사 당국의 능력이 믿어지지 않는다며 혀를 내둘렀다고 전했다.

지난 2008년에도 역시 미시간주 교도소에서 탈옥한 여성이 32년 만에 샌디에이고에서 검거된 적이 있다.

1976년 탈옥한 마리 월시는 수전 르페브르라는 가짜 이름으로 샌디에이고에 숨어 살다 붙잡혔으며 나중에 신분을 감춘 채 살아온 세월을 정리한 ‘두 개의 인생 이야기’라는 책을 써 유명해졌다. (연합)

 

<관련 영문 기사>

My mum is jail-breaker? Fugitive arrested after 37 years

A woman who escaped from a Michigan prison nearly 37 years ago has been found living under an alias in San Diego, police said Tuesday.

Judy Lynn Hayman, 60, was being held in a San Diego County jail awaiting extradition to Michigan, where she escaped from a prison in Ypsilanti in 1977 while serving time for attempted larceny, San Diego police Lt. Kevin Mayer said. He did not know if she had retained an attorney, and no court date has been set.

Acting on a tip from the Michigan Department of Corrections, San Diego officers went to an apartment in the city‘s Hillcrest neighborhood Monday afternoon and a woman fitting Hayman’s description answered the door.

She identified herself as Jamie Lewis and produced government documents with the name, Mayer said.

But officers remained suspicious because of inconsistencies in her story and her resemblance to the old Michigan mug shot they were holding.

“Her eyes gave her away,” Mayer said. “The eyes in the picture matched the eyes of this woman.”

The officers took her to a police station, where she eventually acknowledged being Hayman, Mayer said.

It was not clear how long the woman had been living in the home or in San Diego, Mayer said.

Her 32-year-old son had been visiting when police arrived, and officers said he appeared stunned by their questions.

“This seemed very much a surprise to him,” Mayer said.

He did not have the son‘s name, and public listings for the residence under the name Jamie Lewis did not include a phone number.

Neighbors said Hayman had lived in the complex for several years and mostly kept to herself.

Neighbor Maria Lopez, 60, told the U-T San Diego newspaper that Hayman did not appear to work. She said people came by Hayman’s house to do her laundry, and she had frequent visits from her son.

It was not yet clear what evidence led Michigan investigators to the location of Hayman, who was 23 years old and about halfway through a sentence of 16 months to two years when she walked away from the Women‘s Huron Valley Correctional facility about 36 miles west of Detroit.

Mayer said he was wowed by the investigators’ ability to “put some dots together” and provide San Diego officers with the right address after nearly four decades.

“I commend them for their tenacity,” he said. “This is a very old case.”

The case bears striking similarity to that of Marie Walsh, who also escaped from a Michigan prison, in 1976, when she was known as Susan LeFevre. She was also found living under an alias in San Diego, in 2008.

Walsh spent 13 more months in prison then returned to San Diego where she resumed her life with her husband of more than 20 years and wrote a book called “A Tale of Two Lives” about her ordeal. (From news reports)