Lester Eubanks May Soon Be Caught After Nearly 50 Years on the Run

After convicted murderer Lester Eubanks escaped from prison during the winter of 1973, his case wasn't brought to the public's attention very much again until a 1994 episode of America's Most Wanted. 

More than 25 years later, a new audience was introduced to Eubanks' crimes and his infamous prison escape in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix (Volume 2, Episode 3).

Armchair detectives got to work after watching the series, and they yearned to find any clue that could lead authorities to the convicted killer's location.

In March of 2021, authorities in Los Angeles revealed that they're close to finding Eubanks. Keep reading for the latest in the case, and for the refresher on why Lester Eubanks was in prison in the first place. 

The stories on Unsolved Mysteries range from the strange, with alien abductions involved, to downright dumbfounding, like the disappearance of people who go on to remain missing for decades. The latter is the case with Eubanks, but he was never a victim and his need to stay hidden stems from his other need to stay out of prison, where he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life after murdering and attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl.

Nowadays, prison escapes less common, and those who do manage to break free are usually caught within a matter of days. However, in the case of Lester Eubanks, he managed to vanish into thin air for the better part of five decades.

While some assumed that Eubanks was living with a new appearance under a different name in a place where nobody would know him, the U.S. Marshals Service now has another theory.

Photographs from the '70s now appear to show that Eubanks never left the greater Los Angeles area. Some of his former co-workers have handed in pictures that appear to show Eubanks. 

He likely worked under the name Victor Young after his escape from the Ohio State Penitentiary. While he attempted to assimilate to life as a regular civilian again, he reportedly worked as a janitor at a hospital.

He also was employed at a waterbed factory. 

His former boss, Joy Springer, spoke about how Eubanks was as an employee.

Per ABC7, Springer hired Eubanks aka Victor Young when the factory began producing waterbeds when they were highly in demand. She recalled that he rode a bike to work, and that he had a tendency to wear a lot of cologne. She remembered that he lived in an apartment off of El Segundo Boulevard. 

Eubanks even had a long-term girlfriend during this time; he lived on-and-off with a woman named Kay Eubanks from 1975 to 1996. 

Deputy U.S. Marshal David Siler is offering a $50,000 reward for anyone who has insight into Eubanks' whereabouts now.

With this information, it could now just be a matter of time until Lester Eubanks is apprehended again. 

Mary Ellen Deener's family may, once again, be close to getting some closure.

In 1965, when Mary Ellen Deener was 14, she was assaulted and murdered by Eubanks, who pleaded guilty and was later convicted for the crimes. She and her 12-year-old sister had been doing laundry at a local laundromat when they ran out of change and Deener ran into Eubanks. He beat her with a brick and shot her multiple times. Eubanks later pleaded insanity and was sentenced to life without parole.

Deener’s older sister, Myrtle Carter, spoke to Rolling Stone in 2019 about the crime and said that her younger sister who had been with Deener required counseling for the rest of her life since it happened. She also said the family was "traumatized" after Eubanks successfully escaped from prison less than 10 years after murdering her sister.

And for now, Eubanks remains on the run.

Unsolved Mysteries is now streaming on Netflix.