BISMARCK, N.D. — One of the nation's most wanted fugitives was captured Thursday in Canada, more than a year after the convicted murderer slipped out of a federal prison with bags of mail in his third escape from confinement, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Richard McNair was captured about 100 miles north of the Canadian border in Campbellton, New Brunswick, after authorities pulled him over in a stolen van, Ward County Sheriff Vern Erck said.
"In typical McNair fashion, he jumped out of the van and took off. Officers caught him about a quarter-mile later down a gravel road," Erck said.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Glenn Belgard in Alexandria, La., who has been in charge of the investigation, confirmed the capture through photographs.
McNair, who had grown a full mustache and beard, had several fake IDs but told authorities his real identity, authorities said.
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McNair was convicted of killing Jerome Theis, of Circle Pines, Minn., in November 1987, during a burglary at a Minot grain elevator. Richard Kitzman, an elevator employee, was shot three times but survived.
Erck said he planned to accompany federal marshals to Canada to bring McNair back to the U.S. McNair likely would be imprisoned in North Dakota, Erck said.
McNair has been listed among 15 of the nation's most wanted criminals. Officials offered a $25,000 reward for his capture.
McNair, 48, escaped from a federal prison in Pollock, La., by smuggling himself out in a pile of mailbags on April 5, 2006, authorities said.
McNair also escaped twice in North Dakota.
In February 1988, he used a tube of lip balm to grease up his hand and slip out of handcuff at the Minot police station. He was captured after he jumped from the third floor of a nearby building.
The second escape came from the North Dakota State Penitentiary. Officials said McNair and two other prisoners escaped through a ventilation duct on Oct. 9, 1992, and was on the lam until the following July 5, when he was captured in Grand Island, Neb.
Erck said McNair nearly escaped from the Ward County Jail while awaiting trial for the grain elevator shootings.
"He chipped out two cinder blocks in his cell," Erck said.
Behind the cinderblocks, authorities found a deputy's flashlight and sheets and towels tied to make a rope, which he intended to use to rappel to freedom after tunneling out of the jail, Erck said.
