Blane Barksdale, 56, and Susan Barksdale, 59, have been arrested according to the U.S. Marshall’s Office. The pair escaped a prison transport van in August as they were being extradited to Pima County for the murder of 72-year-old Frank Bligh.
Susan pretended to be ill which gave the couple an opportunity to overpower the transport team outside of Blanding, Utah.
The couple drove the prison transport vehicle to Vernon, Arizona, where they got a pickup truck provided by an acquaintance, according to officials. Then they “abandoned the locked prison van with the three occupants inside.”
According to authorities, the couple may be been helped by white supremacists in northern Arizona area. U.S. Marshal for Arizona David Gonzales said at a Tuesday press conference that Blane Barksdale would have been associated in prison “with Aryan brotherhoods, white supremacist gangs.” Gonzales said he did not think that “there’s any question that there are people that are assisting and harboring” the Barksdales.
They were captured in a meth house Pumpkin Center, Arizona in Gila County and about 100 miles northeast of Phoenix.