Native man on the run for 16 years arrested on Manitoba reserve

A Native man who was the only person on South Dakota's most wanted prison escapee list for 16 years has been arrested in Canada.

Clifford Laframboise was serving an 18-year prison sentence for first-degree burglary. He walked away from a minimum-security unit at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in 1994, with eight years left on his sentence.

Laframboise, who is also known as Clifford Thomas, fled to Canada and eventually ended up on the Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation in Manitoba, where his birth family lives. He got married and fathered six children -- all while going unnoticed over the past 16 years.

"He knew this would come sooner or later," his wife, Ora Sinclair, told The Winnipeg Free Press.

Laframboise's past began to catch up with him after he was arrested in Manitoba twice last year. He's being held on charges and faces extradition proceedings to the U.S.

Get the Story:
Inmate found in Canada 16 years after escape from South Dakota prison (The Rapid City Journal 1/13)
Escapee from U.S. prison discovered on Manitoba reserve (The Winnipeg Free Press 1/13)
U.S. fugitive faces extradition hearing (CBC 1/13)
16-year U.S. fugitive detained in Manitoba (CBC 1/12)

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