Feds finally close books on 1972 Pa. prison escape

The oldest unsolved prison-escape case in Pennsylvania has been taken off the books, the AP reports.

U.S. marshals investigating the case of a woman who escaped 38 years ago from the state prison in Muncy say they recently discovered that she is dead.

Acting U.S. Marshal Martin Pane said yesterday that Mitlean Wright died from complications of multiple sclerosis in Connecticut in 2003. Investigators said she had been bedridden for the final five years of her life and got medical benefits through a bogus Social Security number.

Wright was serving a five-year prison sentence on robbery charges when she escaped from the prison, about 120 miles northwest of Philadelphia, in 1972.

Now, we wait for the ripped-from-the-headlines Law and Order episode.