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Ohio man on lam since 1959 caught in Florida

CLEVELAND - A convicted killer who walked away from an Ohio prison farm in 1959 has been caught in Florida by members of the U.S. Marshals Service.

A statement from the marshals says 79-year-old Frank Freshwaters, of Akron, was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter for killing a pedestrian with his car in 1957. He initially received a suspended sentence but was imprisoned in 1959 for a parole violation. He fled the camp in Ohio later that year.

The statement says Freshwaters was arrested in West Virginia in 1975, but the governor refused to extradite him and he again went into hiding.

An investigation by the newly formed Ohio cold-case unit led deputies to Melbourne, Florida, where Freshwaters was living under an assumed name. He was arrested Monday and awaits extradition, 58 years after the original crime.

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