An investigation into Pennsylvania's oldest prison escape case is closed after U.S. Marshals recently discovered a Dauphin County convict who escaped from state prison in 1972 died in Connecticut in 2003.



Mitlean Wright was 24 when she escaped from the State Correctional Institute in Muncy, Lycoming County, and 55 when she died at The Hospital for Special Care in New Britain, Conn. from cardiac failure due to complications from severe bronchospasm, asthma and multiple sclerosis, Marshals found.



When she escaped in August 1972, Wright had served only three months of a five-year prison term stemming from a robbery conviction in Dauphin County. It was Wright's second prison break: In May, she and another inmate escaped but were caught within 24 hours.



The Lycoming County Sheriff's office asked the Marshal's Fugitive Task Force for help in the cold case in 2007. Investigators confirmed her death through distant family members.



In the meantime, Wright used an alias social security number from the mid-1970s until her death to receive years of benefits while in medical facilities.



Wright, originally from Hartford, Conn., was charged by the now-defunct Conrail Police Department in Dauphin County in November 1971 with aggravated robbery and aiding a prisoner to escape. A week later, Wright -- who was using the name Omonly Shougossine -- was arrested in Sheldon, S.C., on the felony charges from Dauphin County and extradited to Harrisburg.