Frank Dryman, now 78, was found by an investigator hired by the Montana victim’s grandson.

Before Dryman was arrest by the Pinal County sheriff’s office in Arizona on Tuesday, he was running a successful notary and chapel business under the assumed name Victor Houston.

Dryman initially received a hanging sentence after a trial in 1955. His case then became the focus of a battle over the death penalty, so he received a new sentence of life in prison.

In 1969, after 15 years in prison, Dryman was paroled. He disappeared three years later.

“He just went into thin air in 1972,” Clem Pellett, the victim’s grandson, was quoted as saying, “I don’t think that my grandfather’s death was well represented.”

But Pellett said he only decided to hire a private investigator on a whim during a dinner party conversation, and he is not driven to see Dryman punished.

Dryman was now awaiting extradition proceedings. A hearing was scheduled for Thursday morning local time in Arizona.

“I think this sends a message to other fugitives that they are never off the radar screen,” said Montana Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Anez, “it’s imperative that individuals be held accountable for their actions.” 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-03/25/c_13224846.htm