USA Most Wanted

In 1966 22-year-old Lester Eubanks killed 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener, he shot her twice after beating her and according to prosecutors trying to rape her.

Initially convicted to death, Eubank had his sentence commuted to life in jail in 1972. Eubanks was an ideal prisoner whose good attitude earned him special freedoms.

One such gift for his good manner was that Ohio State Penitentiary let him go Christmas shopping at the local mall, this was on December 7th, 1973. He was thought to be picked up by prison staff at an agreed time near the mall but he didn't come and hasn't been seen since.

The family of his victim was upset. Myrtle Carter (Mary's sister) told: "We guessed it was over and then lo and behold he reaches for Christmas shopping, first of all, that is a surprise and then he runs out, my mum is beside herself." She added, "it worries me that he's still missing, that he's still free after he took her innocent life."

At the time of the killing, Eubanks was out on a

 bond on an attempted rape assault, when caught for the murder he confessed guilt but unsuccessfully attempted to plead insanity.

Astonishingly in the 1990s, the head of the Detective Bureau of the Mansfield Police Department, John Arcudi, delved into Eubanks’ disappearance and discovered that the National Crime Information Center had not named him as wanted/missing. “It had been 20 years and it was like nobody was working the case that we were informed of,” told Arcudi. “He was just out there on his own and nobody looked concerned about it.”

After Arcurdi called 'America's Most Wanted' to bring the public's awareness back to the case many calls came in of sightings of Eubanks in North Carolina and he was then put into the U.S Marshall's Most Wanted list.

The case earned new attention after previously being featured on the Netflix 'Unsolved Mysteries' series and police now believe they are close to eventually catching Eubanks.