A convicted
robber who escaped from the Colorado State Hospital nearly 35 years ago was
recaptured in Florida, ending Colorado’s longest-running fugitive case, authorities
said Wednesday.
Gary L. McFall, 62, was arrested Tuesday at Port Richey, Fla., the Colorado
Department of Corrections said.
Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said Marine Corps investigators
alerted Colorado authorities in March that McFall had been on an air base in
Arizona, and the investigators discovered he was wanted on the 35-year-old arrest
warrant.
She said it was unclear why the Marines had contact with McFall but they had not
been investigating him.
Sanguinetti said Department of Corrections investigators then used the National
Crime Information Computer, commercial data providers and motor vehicle records to
track McFall down in Florida.
McFall was sentenced in February 1970 to 6 to 14 years in prison on a robbery
conviction in Denver.
He had been transferred to the Colorado State Hospital in Pueblo for observation,
where he escaped on Nov. 2, 1971, Sanguinetti said. She did not know what prompted
the transfer.
Sanguinetti said efforts are underway to bring McFall back to Colorado to face
felony escape charges.
