Link (http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=132308&catid=2)

A Tellico Plains man convicted of murdering two teenage girls in the 70's then spending years on the run after his escape, has died in prison.

U.S. Department of Corrections officials say Joe Shepherd died in the Northeast Correctional Facility in Mountain City on Saturday.

Shepherd was serving a life sentence for the murders of 16-year-old Roxanne Woodson and 15-year-old Kathy Clowers in 1978.

The case earned national attention, after Shepherd escaped from prison before his trials, and disappeared for years.

In 1990, a man spotted him in Canada, after the story aired on NBC's Unsolved Mysteries program.
Authorities brought him back to Monroe County, where he was convicted in the girls' deaths.

Officials say Shepherd died of natural causes.

Speaking of this topic, even though the case was never profiled on UM, the Black Widow of Georgia, Lynn Turner who poisoned to death both her husband and later her boyfriend with anti freeze died in prison in Georgia last week.

I was just coming to post the same link. I was checking news from back home and definitely wasn't expecting a UM-related story right from the get-go.

Wow, thanks for the update! This is one of the very earliest UM cases and I recently re-watched it for the first time in a long, long time. Joe Shepherd was a true piece of work and I'm glad that UM was able to play such a big part in getting him behind bars from the rest of his natural life. It always made me feel good about UM when a dangerous fugitive like him was found to be living with a new spouse/family since it's possible the show could have wound up saving their lives in the long run.

It always made me feel good about UM when a dangerous fugitive like him was found to be living with a new spouse/family since it's possible the show could have wound up saving their lives in the long run.

I feel the same way, too. In fact, saving lives is part of what UM was about. Besides, like any other genuinely concerned citizen, I don't like to see even one criminal get away. And that was undoubtedly one of the main reasons why shows like UM were successful.