A man who disappeared in 1983 while awaiting trial on attempted murder charges in Wyoming allegedly spent the next four decades living under the identity of a dead classmate before his arrest last month. Stephen Craig Campbell, 76, who found himself on the US Marshals' most-wanted list, was arrested Feb. 19 at his 44-acre property in Weed, New Mexico, following a standoff with police, reports NBC News. Campbell allegedly greeted officers who showed up to arrest him "with a scoped rifle" that was "loaded and ready to fire," according to the US Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico.
In 1982, Campbell allegedly placed a bomb in a toolbox and left it on the doorstep of his estranged wife's boyfriend. It exploded when the wife opened it, leaving her with a severed finger among other injuries. Released on bond in 1983, Campbell went on the run and allegedly assumed the identity of Walter Lee Coffman, a former classmate at the University of Arkansas who'd died in a car crash in 1975, per the New York Times. Campbell used Coffman's name to get a passport, driver's license, and replacement Social Security card. He also cashed more than $100,000 in government retirement benefits and purchased property under Coffman's name, authorities say.
His alleged ruse worked until it didn't. After Campbell renewed the driver's license in 2019, fraud agents "discovered Coffman's death and the suspected decades-long fraudulent use of his identity," said the attorney's office. When officers arrived at Campbell's home last month, they discovered he was armed and hiding in the woods. He was ultimately detained without injury to himself or others, though authorities say he had 57 guns and ammunition capable of piercing body armor. He faces up to 10 years in prison for misuse of a passport. Authorities in Wyoming have requested detention until he can be extradited to face the earlier charges. (More fugitive stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
