The 4 spookiest stories from Netflix’s reboot of Unsolved Mysteries
“Death Row Fugitive”
The Story: In November of 1965, Lester Eubanks brutally murdered 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener outside of a laundromat in Mansfield, Ohio. Eubanks had been out on parole for charges of sexual assault of a minor, and murdered Mary Ellen by shooting her and then coming back later to bash in her skull with a brick. Eubanks confessed to the murder and showed no remorse. He was sentenced to death and was awaiting the chair when Ohio abolished the death penalty in 1972. Eubanks got himself enrolled in a prison reform program that allowed him to go Christmas shopping in December of 1973. He disappeared from the mall where the guards had left him and has been on the run ever since.
Theories: This is a heartbreaking case. An evil man has been allowed to live his life freely after taking the life of a child. As one law enforcement official says, “the police can only do so much, we have to get the word out there, get his profile out there and hopefully someone has seen him.”
Watch this episode carefully and show Eubanks’ picture to as many people as you can. Hopefully someone will have seen him somewhere. Let’s track his movements following his escape and theorize as to where he might be.
Eubanks went to Michigan for a few weeks after escaping, waiting to see if police would come after him. He painted houses to make money before hopping on a bus headed for California. There, he stayed with his cousin’s widow Kay Banks, who had been a pen-pal of his in prison. Kay later told police that Eubanks had begun to scare her. To get him out of her life, she told him that the FBI had called looking for him, and the next day he was gone.
Eubanks is smart: he found work that didn’t require him to have a license and has been able to stay off the grid. In 2003, police in Mansfield decided to take a look at Lester’s father, Mose Eubanks. “Well, you know there’s nothing anyone can do to bring that girl back,” he told them. When police asked if he felt justice was done in the case of his son, he said, “people change and they go on and start new lives and I pray for Lester every day. And that’s all I’m gonna say about Lester.”
Later, an informant told the police that one time when they were hanging out with Mose, he got a call from his son, who was in Alabama. After subpoenaing Mose’s phone records, they found several calls that were going to a center for troubled youth where a person with Lester’s description was working. Unfortunately, the person in question left a few months before the police started looking into it. Police believe that this individual was Lester Eubanks and while they were able to get pretty close, they were ultimately unable to catch him.
Eubanks has friends and associates throughout Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Alabama, California and Washington. He also has a huge scar on his right arm and is an extremely talented painter. I believe that Eubanks is still in the United States. I believe he’s traveling state to state not staying anywhere for too long and potentially committing more crimes as he goes. Regardless of whether he’s changed or not, he should be in prison, and I believe that he’s out there painting houses somewhere or working as a janitor flying completely under the radar. Hopefully they’ll be able to catch him before he passes away.