Fugitive Tennesse murderer caught 32 years after her escape

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A convicted murderer has been captured in Ohio nearly 32 years after she escaped from prison, authorities said Monday.

Margo Freshwater, 53, was arrested Sunday afternoon in Columbus by special agents of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation with help from the Columbus Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, authorities said.

Police did not immediately give details about how they tracked her down.

Freshwater escape from the Tennessee Prison for Women on Oct. 4, 1970. She escaped when she "broke formation" and scaled a single perimeter fence, Department of Correction authorities said.

She had been serving 99 years for the first-degree murder of a Memphis liquor store clerk.

She was one of the original fugitives placed on the TBI's original Most Wanted list on May 5, 1993, and is the 104th person apprehended since the program's inception.

Freshwater was the only woman on the TBI's top 10 list and she was one of only four female escaped convicts still sought. According to the Department of Correction Web site, only two other Tennessee prison escapees have been missing longer, one since 1957 and the other since 1965.

Freshwater was being held in the Franklin County, Ohio, jail.

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On the Net:

TBI site on Freshwater: http://www.tbi.state.tn.us/Fugitives/fwater.htm

Tenn. Dept. of Corrections: http://www.state.tn.us/correction/escapees/escapees.html