Two Decades On The Run

It took 22-years, but a prison escapee is now back in custody. 

Tuesday, October 21st 2008, 11:56 am

By: News On 6

NewsOn6.com

HOUSTON, TX -- A Tulsa man who escaped from an Oklahoma prison over 22 years ago was arrested in Texas late last week.

Members of the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force took 60-year old Allen Whitchurch into custody in a Houston suburb on Thursday.

Whitchurch escaped from the John Lilley Correctional Center in Boley, Oklahoma in April 1986. Whitchurch was serving a 15-year first degree manslaughter sentence out of Tulsa County when he went missing.

A tip led the U.S. Marshals to Texas.

"Whitchurch was definitely surprised as to how we found him," said Deputy U.S. Marshal Alfredo Perez.

Whitchurch began serving his sentence in 1984. He now faces escape charges in Oklahoma.