Death row escapee recaptured after 42 years on the run

By Cuu Long December 18, 2022 | 08:00 am PT

Vo Van Ba at the police station in southern Can Tho City. Photo courtesy of Can Tho City Police Department

A prisoner who was on death row in a jail before escaping has finally been arrested in southern Dong Nai province, after living as a fugitive for 42 years.

The prisoner, named Vo Van Ba, was jailed for rape and murder and sentenced to death while he was being held in southern Hau Giang Province in 1977.

While he was waiting for execution on October 3, 1980, he broke out of his cell at dawn and ran away.

At first, the death row convict said that after getting out of jail, he went to southern Kien Giang Province and lived there for more than a year. After that, he moved to southern Ca Mau Province and changed his name to Nguyen Van Tu. He later got married and had a child.

Ba and his family sold their land in 2013 and moved to Dong Nai to work as brick kiln workers.

He was finally caught on December 16.