Children help lead police to father on since 1971 for killing wife

<br> <br>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ A man who walked away from a prison in 1971 while serving time for his wife's killing has been captured with help from the couple's children. <br><br>Allen D. Marshall

Wednesday, March 17th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ A man who walked away from a prison in 1971 while serving time for his wife's killing has been captured with help from the couple's children.

Allen D. Marshall Jr., 62, was arrested by federal marshals Monday at his home in Houston, where he was living under his own name, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported.

``It will be interesting when he gets back (for him) to tell us what he's been doing all this time,'' Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sue McNaughton said.

Marshall had remarried and his two teenage sons were home with him when he was arrested, officials said.

He waived extradition, but it was not immediately clear when he would be brought back to Pennsylvania.

Marshall was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the June 12, 1969, beating death of his estranged wife, Barbara Carol Marshall, 22, and was sentenced to a term of five to 10 years.

In November 1971, he failed to return from a three-day furlough from the state prison at Camp Hill. Furloughs haven't been granted in several years, McNaughton said.

Investigators believe Marshall spent about two decades in Mexico before settling in Texas in about 1994.

Marshall and his slain wife had at least two children, a son and daughter. In 2002, they gave prison officials a Dallas-area address, found on the Internet, and said Marshall had told them he wanted to get reacquainted, according to arrest documents.

The Dallas lead didn't pan out, but federal marshals later found him in Houston.

The state's oldest unsolved escape dates to June 1971, when Leonard Moses failed to return from a similar prison furlough. Moses was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.