Half a Century on the Run: How a Convicted Murderer Vanished Without a Trace After Walking Out of Prison

Imagine being trusted enough to leave prison for a little Christmas shopping… and then vanishing into thin air like a magician’s best trick. That’s exactly what happened in 1973 when Lester Eubanks, a convicted murderer, walked out on an ‘honor assignment’—and never returned. Over 50 years later, despite numerous leads, occasional sighting claims, and even a mix-up that cleared his warrant temporarily, he’s still the ghost at the feast for law enforcement. Was it a genius escape plan, dumb luck, or… sheer audacity? Now in his 80s, Lester remains one of Ohio’s most baffling mysteries, haunting cold case files and Netflix screens alike. Intrigued yet? LEARN MORE.

In 1973 a convicted murderer walked out of prison and never returned, over 50 years later police still haven’t managed to find him.

On 14 November, 1965, in Mansfield, Ohio, Lester Eubanks murdered 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener while she was helping her family with laundry, the following year he was found guilty of murder while perpetrating a rape and sentenced to death.

At the time he had committed the murder, Eubanks was out on bond for an attempted rape which had occurred three months before he killed Mary.

In 1972 his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, but a year after that he took the opportunity to walk away from prison when it presented itself.

Eubanks was given an ‘honour assignment’ which allowed him to leave the prison for a period of time to do Christmas shopping with the expectation that he would return to his incarceration once his task had been completed, he never did.

Convicted of murder in 1966, a few years later he was allowed out of prison and never came back (US Marshals)

The convicted murderer and other inmates were taken to a shopping mall and allowed to walk around it unsupervised as long as they returned to the meetup spot by a certain time but when it was time to leave Lester never came back.

Walking away from his prison sentence on 7 December, Eubanks has been a fugitive ever since then with the police failing to arrest him for decades.

They weren’t without leads, the authorities identified the convicted murderer as one ‘Victor Young’ in California, with him working in a waterbed factory at one point and as a hospital janitor.

However, a federal arrest warrant out against the man was accidentally taken off the database and this error wasn’t spotted until the 90s.

A TV appeal for information about Eubanks received a huge amount of information, and a woman named Kay Banks said he had lived with her for several years.

Mock-ups of what the 81-year-old Lester Eubanks might look like if he was still alive today (US Marshals)

Investigators also believe that on three separate occasions between 2003 and 2012 he returned to Ohio to attend the funerals of family members and yet he has not been caught.

Despite having all sorts of information about his past whereabouts and the jobs he worked, police remain unable to find the convicted murderer to this day.

That’s if he’s even still alive, since he would be an 81-year-old now.

The case of the missing convicted murderer was officially turned over to a cold case unit in 2016, with investigators following up hundreds of leads without being able to find him.

A reward of $50,000 (£37,500) is available for anyone who can provide information that would lead to the murderer’s arrest and as of 2018 he is a USMS 15 Most Wanted Fugitive.

His story was also featured on an episode of Netflix’s true crime show Unsolved Mysteries.