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Extreme Cold Helps Capture ’70s Prison Escapee

Posted at 10:41 PM, Feb 05, 2014
and last updated 2014-02-06 04:36:35-05

SAN DIEGO (Feb 5, 2014) — What started as a few days stuck on desk duty is leading investigators with the Michigan Department of Corrections to prison escapees around the country.

Now that convicted murderer Michael Elliot is back in custody, attention is shifting to a mother of three who was arrested after being on the run for more than 30 years.

Judy Lynn Hayman, 60, escaped an Ypsilanti prison in 1977 while serving time for larceny.  She was arrested in San Diego Monday after new fingerprint scans led police to her alias, Jamie Lewis.

Investigators with the Michigan Department of Corrections are required to take a look at their cold cases once a year.

Hayman New and Old PicturesThis year, they took an extra step, converting fugitive fingerprints from paper to digital and sending them to the FBI crime lab in Virginia for analysis.

Investigators took a look at cold cases while stuck on desk duty during the extremely cold winter weather.

“When they gave us fingerprints back, they had different names or different aliases on them,” Lt. Charles Levens of the Michigan Department of Corrections said. He credits Hayman’s arrest to the tenacity of lead investigator Tim Hardville.

Though this arrest 36 years later is making international headlines, investigators are just getting started, Levens said. He believes the new fingerprint scans will lead to three or four more fugitive arrests.  They are also working to confirm that three fugitives have died.

Hayman is awaiting extradition to Michigan, where she will finish the eight months left in her sentence for larceny.  The prosecutor in that county will then decide whether to file escape charges.