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1959 Fugitive Released On Parole From Nelsonville Facility

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A man who disappeared from an Ohio prison camp in 1959 while serving time for manslaughter, was found last year in Florida and spent his 80th birthday in custody has been released on parole.

Ohio’s prison department says Frank Freshwaters was released Wednesday morning from a Nelsonville facility to a relative in West Virginia. The department wouldn’t disclose details.

Freshwaters was caught twice in the decades he was considered a fugitive. He first was found in West Virginia in 1975 but wasn’t extradited, as the state’s governor concluded Freshwaters had a “flawless 16-year residency” there.

Investigators tracked him down last year and found the widower living off Social Security benefits under an alias at a trailer in rural Brevard County, Florida.

The conditions of parole include five years of supervision.