FBI Task Force Tracks Down Prison Escapees Decades Later

north carolinaBy Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Margaret B. Smith walked out of a state prison halfway house in February 1977 and never looked back.

But 38 years later, in May 2015, Smith heard a knock on the door. It was FBI Task Officer Tonya S. Sconyers.

“I knew what they wanted,” Smith told the Fay Observer. ” “I didn’t try to fight or resist them. I just knew.”

Smith, now 68, was convicted of writing $200 in bad checks in 1974.

Her arrest was part of a joint task force by the FBI and the North Carolina Department of Public Safety to capture 147 escapees.

Since Sept. 1, the task force has helped return 13 people to prison.

“We’re pretty proud of what we did in the last year,” Sconyers said. “We’re not going to stop until we get them all.”

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