Woman fugitive is recaptured after 37 YEARS on the run: Burglar who escaped in 1976 is arrested in front of 32-year-old son who had no idea about criminal past

Judy Lynn Hayman has used several aliases since escaping prison in 1977

Hayman, 60, is due to be extradited to Michigan where she had been serving a sentence for larceny

A woman who has been on the run for 37 years after escaping a Michigan prison has been arrested in San Diego.



Judy Lynn Hayman, 60, is being held without bail after police arrested her at a San Diego apartment on Tuesday.

The escaped prisoner had changed her identity several times and even managed to keep her fugitive past a secret from her 32-year-old son, police say.

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Fugitive: Judy Lynn Hayman, seen here in her prison mug shot from 1976, has been on the run for 37 years

After pleading guilty to larceny in June 1976, Hayman was sent to the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Wayne County, Michigan.



She was 10 months into that sentence when she managed to escape in April 1977, at the age of 23, according to prison officials.



When police finally caught up with her on Tuesday she claimed to be called Jamie Lewis, and had the documents to prove it.



Her son, who had been visiting at the time of the arrest, seemed 'quite surprised' by the revelations about his mother, Fox 5 reported.

Acting on a tip from the Michigan Department of Corrections, San Diego officers went to her apartment on Monday afternoon.

Hide out: Hayman, 60, was arrested at this gated community in San Diego

She identified herself as Jamie Lewis and produced government documents with the name, San Diego police Lt. Kevin Mayer said.

But officers remained suspicious because of inconsistencies in her story and her resemblance to the old Michigan mug shot they were holding.

'Her eyes gave her away,' Mayer said. 'The eyes in the picture matched the eyes of this woman.'

The officers took her to a police station, where she eventually acknowledged being Hayman.

Since her escape, Hayman had gone under several aliases including Brenda Bushmer, Judy Kayman and Judy Singleton, according to the Department of Corrections.



The 60-year-old later admitted, during questioning, that she was Judy Lynn Hayman, NBC7 reported.

Escape: Hayman was serving a sentence for larceny when she ran away from this Huron Valley prison in 1977

It is not known how long she had been living at the Balboa Park address, but neighbors claimed she had been in the gated community for several years.

Maria Lopez told UT San Diego that Hayman kept to herself but would occasionally make conversation, and Arnecia Benton, whose sister lives in the same complex, said Hayman had told her she was from Detroit.

Hayman is being held without bail and is awaiting extradition to Michigan.

It was not yet clear what evidence led investigators to the location of Hayman, who was about halfway through her sentence when she walked away from a correctional facility 36 miles from Detroit.

Mayer said he was wowed by the investigators' ability to 'put some dots together' and provide San Diego officers with the right address after nearly four decades.