FBI arrests fugitive 50 years after escaping from custody

A fugitive Leonard Rayne Moses has been arrested in the US state of Michigan, by the FBI nearly half a century after he escaped from custody.

In 1971, Moses fled while serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Mary Amplo during civil unrest that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

According to ABC News, investigators were able to catch Moses Thursday through the FBI’s Next Generation Identification system.

The system matched Moses’ 1968 fingerprints to fingerprints taken during a local Michigan state arrest in 2020, said Michael Christman, FBI Pittsburgh’s special agent in charge, during a press conference.

“It’s these new advances in technology that the FBI must continue to identify and use to make sure those who commit crimes are brought to justice,” Christman wrote in a statement.

Moses was arrested at his home in Grand Blanc, Michigan, on Nov. 12 by the FBI’s Detroit Fugitive Task Force, said Christman.

According to the release, Moses is pending an extradition hearing and still faces Michigan state charges before he is brought back to Pennsylvania.