Millionaire Manhunt

Wanted For Murder, A Man Evades Authorities For Nearly Two Decades

(CBS)  For 11 years, it worked. Trahan kept her mouth shut. But by January 1998, she had had it with the threats and finally challenged him. "I said, ‘Did you kill that woman or what?’ And he says, 'I don’t wanna discuss that right now,'" she remembers.

That’s when Trahan decided to go to the cops. But her boss, the lawyer, knew they would have two big questions: Why had she kept silent so long, and was she also involved, since she had suggested those flowers?

But in the end, the authorities were so blown away by her story they agreed that in return for her testimony, they would not press charges.

"She provided details that only someone that was associated with the crime would know," says Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent John Lang, now retired, who got the case.

His question: After so long, could she still identify the man who had paid Harwood off? He showed her a photo array.

Initially, she pointed at a photo of Sullivan, telling Lang she was 40 percent sure it was the man from the diner.

But after a few minutes, she again pointed right to the picture of Sullivan and told Lang she was 100 percent sure.

Once he had her positive ID, Lang set out to verify the rest of Trahan's story.

"We went to North American Van Lines and just by the grace of God, were able to find, in an attic, these records that had not been purged," Lang remembers. "The first box I opened was the moving invoice with James Sullivan’s signature on it, Tony Harwood’s signature on it."

It was a huge breakthrough — the first hard evidence linking Harwood and Jim Sullivan in the months before Lita Sullivan was killed.

"Belinda is the only person that saw these two men together, and she’s the only person that saw the exchange of money. It was crucial," explains Lieck.

But was it enough to nail Jim Sullivan?

Today, Belinda and her husband Tim Trahan share a picture-perfect life in rural Texas, a far cry from 1998, when Belinda feared for her life, and literally went underground.

For about four months, she retreated in fear into a crawl space barely four feet big, living deep under her house with a TV, a bed and a loaded .357 magnum.

She was hiding in terror from Harwood and Jim Sullivan.

"I felt that if he paid $25,000 to kill his wife, what’s $100,000 to kill the eyewitness that could put him away for life?" Tim Trahan says.

In the 11 years since Lita’s murder, Jim Sullivan had been a free man and, even with Belinda's story, police still didn’t have enough solid evidence to charge him. They hoped Harwood would provide more, so they told Belinda to call him and get him talking.

Asked why he didn't just turn Sullivan in, Harwood told her during the recorded conversation, "I thought about that, too, but, see, all he can do is testify that I was the one."

Especially incriminating was Harwood’s answer when Belinda recalls that, at first, she didn’t believe him.

"I didn’t never figure it was really real, you know that," Belinda said.

"Oh yeah, it was real, I live it every day," Harwood replied. "Sometimes I cry myself to sleep at night, thinking about it."

The next day, Lang knocked on Harwood’s door.

"Tony came out," Lang recalls, "and got in the front seat of the car, and he said 'I've been waiting for you boys for a long time.'"