More than 31 years after he escaped from prison, Armin Christian's life on the lam has ended.
Police have arrested Christian, who has been living quietly in Bristol, R.I. as a handyman under the assumed name Chris Christian, Rhode Island Public Radio reported. He was serving an 11-month sentence for failure to pay child support when he escaped from Piedmont Work Center near Greenville, S.C. on Christmas Day, 1980.
"Usually when someone escapes from a facility and has criminal background they end up coming into contact with some type of law enforcement. This person, I think it’s quite unusual that he led such a low profile for 32 years without having any new cases or new arrests from what we can tell," Rhode Island State Police Capt. Michael J. Winquist told MSNBC. "Thirty-two years without being captured is pretty amazing."
A tipster recently informed cops where they could find the escapee.
Before settling in Rhode Island in 1988, Christian reportedly told police that he lived in several states, including New Jersey, Maryland and Florida.
Officers allegedly found a very cooperative fugitive, and he reportedly had plans of his own to attempt to atone for his decades-old crime.
"He wasn't really surprised. He actually said that he was in the process of going back to South Carolina to turn himself in," Winquist told RIPR.
The 65-year-old has been charged with escaping a correctional facility and was arraigned in a Providence District Court on Wednesday, NBC affiliate WYFF reported.