Fingerprint ruse IDs Florida man as longtime Ohio fugitive

Convicted of manslaughter, man free since 1975

This pair of photo shows shows Harold Frank Freshwaters, left, in a Feb. 26, 1959 Ohio State Reformatory photo released by the U.S. Marshals Service, and right, in a May 4, 2015, booking photo released by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. Freshwaters, 79, of Akron, Ohio, was arrested by U.S. Marshals Monday, May 4, 2015 by in Melbourne, Fla. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing a pedestrian with his car in 1957. Freshwaters initially received a suspended sentence but was imprisoned in 1959 for a parole violation. He fled a prison farm in northwest Ohio later that year. - photo by Associated Press

On Lam Since 1959 Heal — This pair of photo shows shows Harold Frank Freshwaters, left, in a Feb. 26, 1959 Ohio State Reformatory photo released by the U.S. Marshals Service, and right, in a May 4, 2015, booking photo released by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. Freshwaters, 79, of Akron, Ohio, was arrested by U.S. Marshals Monday, May 4, 2015 by in Melbourne, Fla. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing a pedestrian with his car in 1957. Freshwaters initially received a suspended sentence but was imprisoned in 1959 for a parole violation. He fled a prison farm in northwest Ohio later that year. - photo by Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. — A man convicted of manslaughter walked away from an Ohio prison farm in 1959, then was allowed to slip away from law enforcement in 1975 and disappeared until a ruse to get his fingerprints led to his arrest in Florida this week, investigators said Tuesday. Former Akron, Ohio, resident Frank Freshwaters, now 79, admitted his true identity when authorities confronted him Monday, according to the U.S. Marshals Service and deputies in Brevard County, Florida. Marshals in Ohio had sought help from deputies there, and they created a ruse to get him to sign papers so they could check his fingerprints, which matched the decades-old arrest, said Major Tod Goodyear.

Associated Press

Associated Press