Feds: Woman On The Run For 18 Years Found In Key West
KEY WEST (CBSMiami) – After 18 years on the run, a Kansas City woman has been apprehended in Key West living on a house boat, authorities said.
Michelle Singleton failed to appear in court on for sentencing on charges of payroll check fraud in March of 1996 in Kansas City.
She is now 66 years old.
Officials said the Secret Service recently learned she could be living in Key West under the name Catherine Harris.
Agents confirmed the woman's identity with a photo match.
A check of computer records showed a woman by the name of Harris was living at an address in the Hilton Haven neighborhood of Key West. She had a 1994 Honda with a Florida tag, and had obtained a Florida driver's license in 2006 which expired in 2012.
Agents went to the houseboat in Key West at a pier at 15 Hilton Haven Drive.
Singleton was on board. When they asked her for her identification, they said she gave them her expired license. They asked for her birth certificate and, when she got it from a file, detectives said some other pieces of paper fell out. Those pieces of paper turned out to be the social security card and birth certificate for Singleton.
She said she'd obtained a birth certificate with the name Harris one month after fleeing from Kansas City. She also said she used that birth certificate to initially obtain her Florida Driver's license.
Authorities said she told them she had not renewed her driver's license because they had changed the rules for applying for it and she did not have all the proper identification she needed to apply for the renewal.
She admitted she was, indeed, Michelle Singleton, according to detectives. She was taken into federal custody on the federal fugitive charges. Singleton told the officers when they found her she was in the process of trying to sell the houseboat and move to the Dominican Republic.