Images from a wanted poster show Stephen Craig Campbell, who was captured last month in New Mexico after more than four decades living under an assumed name. Photo / US Marshals Service via the New York Times
Images from a wanted poster show Stephen Craig Campbell, who was captured last month in New Mexico after more than four decades living under an assumed name. Photo / US Marshals Service via the New York Times
For four decades, a man lived as Walter Lee Coffman, using his Social Security number, obtaining a driver’s license and passports, purchasing property and even cashing more than US$100,000 in government retirement benefits, Justice Department officials said.
In reality, he was using the identity of another man who had beendead for close to 50 years, United States authorities said, after going on the lam because he was facing attempted murder charges in Wyoming.
The law caught up last month, authorities said, after agencies arrested Stephen Craig Campbell at his property in Weed, New Mexico. They charged him with misuse of a passport, officials announced Wednesday.
The US Attorney’s office in New Mexico accused Campbell, 76, of assuming the identity of Coffman, a University of Arkansas graduate who died in 1975 when he was 22.
University records show that Campbell and Coffman were students at the university at the same time where they “pursued engineering degrees, suggesting a likely connection between the two”, according to the Justice Department.
Speaking to local news media in Arkansas, Coffman’s family said they were shocked to learn that his identity was stolen.
Coffman’s aunt, Sharon Ennis, told 40/29 News that Campbell “desecrated” her nephew’s “good name.” She said that Coffman died in a car crash on his way home after visiting his fiancee.
David Benatar, a lawyer for Campbell, said that his client is “presumed innocent, and we should let the court process reach its end before jumping to any conclusions”.
Campbell, who graduated with an electrical engineering degree, had seemingly disappeared in 1983 when he failed to appear in court to face charges of first-degree attempted murder in connection with a 1982 Wyoming bombing, according to court documents.
The Justice Department announced that the US Marshals Service and the FBI had arrested Stephen Craig Campbell, a fugitive for more than four decades, last month in Weed, New Mexico. Photo / Kent Nishimura, the New York Times
In 1982, he was accused of planting a toolbox containing an explosive device at the doorstep of his estranged wife’s boyfriend in Wyoming. She opened the toolbox and the bomb exploded, causing her to lose a finger, according to court documents. The explosion also set the condominium and a neighbouring unit on fire.
He was released on bond after his arrest by Rock Springs, Wyoming, police. Authorities issued a warrant for him after he did not show up to his court date.
Campbell first applied for a passport under Coffman’s name 41 years ago in 1984, “starting a long pattern of fraud”, according to court records, which also said that he obtained a replacement Social Security card in Coffman’s name in 1995, using an Oklahoma driver’s licence in Coffman’s name.
After moving to Weed in 2003, Campbell bought property under Coffman’s name, authorities said.
Campbell’s cover began to fall apart in September 2019 when he renewed his driver’s licence in New Mexico, according to federal prosecutors.
He presented a previously issued licence bearing the name “Walter L. Coffman”, Coffman’s birth date, and an address in Weed as well as a Social Security card and a US passport, both in Coffman’s name, according to court documents.
Record searches stemming from the licence application showed that Walter Lee Coffman had been dead since 1975.
Following an investigation, authorities obtained warrants to arrest Campbell and search a 18ha property in New Mexico that is registered under Coffman’s name.
When officers went to carry out the warrants on February 19, Campbell “greeted law enforcement armed with a scoped rifle, positioning himself in an elevated, partially concealed spot”, according to prosecutors.
Officers deployed stun grenades and tried to engage Campbell, who “remained hidden but later emerged from the wood line after repeated orders” and was detained, authorities said.
Campbell’s rifle was “loaded and ready to fire”. According to court records, “the weapon was especially dangerous because of the high-powered ammunition it fires which is capable of piercing standard body [armour]”.
The prosecutor’s office said that 57 firearms and large quantities of ammunition were found on the property.
Campbell, who is being held at the Dona Ana County Detention Centre in Las Cruces, New Mexico, was deemed a flight risk by the US District Court in New Mexico, according to court records. He will remain in custody pending trial.
After his arrest, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office in Green River, Wyoming, requested a detainer be placed on Campbell in connection with the 1982 attempted murder case.
