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A fugitive wanted for the murder attempt of his wife separated more than 40 years ago has been captured after his scam of assuming the identity of a dead man for decades finally unbelievable, the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.
Stephen Craig Campbell, 76, managed New Mexico Last week during an armed confrontation with the police who found almost 60 weapons in his residence, prosecutors said.
The alleged scammer was fleeing to plant a toolbox trapped in coil with explosives outside the Wyoming’s house of his wife’s boyfriend in 1982, the Department of Justice said.
Campbell Mugshot 2025, left, 1982 Mugshot and weapons found in its property, (Department of Justice)
ICE eliminates the ‘foreign fugitive’ searched in Mexico with a violation load
When he opened the container, a powerful explosion started one of his fingers and sent the shrapnel flying. The explosion also lit a fire, destroying the residence and a neighboring unit, the police in Sweetwater, Wyoming said.
According to him Department of JusticeCampbell was arrested and accused of attempted first -degree murder, but was released on bail in 1982. Immediately after publishing the bond, it disappeared.
An order of order was issued, but disappeared without a trace, avoiding capture for decades sliding in the identity of Walter Lee Coffman, who died in 1975 at the age of 22.
Coffman had graduated from the University of Arkansas only two months before his death. The university records showed that Campbell attended the same institution during that period, where both he and Coffman followed engineering titles, which suggests a probable connection between the two, said the Department of Justice.
Campbell first requested a passport under the name of Coffman in 1984 and renewed it several times, always providing a photograph of himself and his current address, prosecutors allege. He also scammed a replacement social security card on behalf of Coffman in 1995 through the use of an Oklahoma driver’s license in Coffman’s name.
Campbell Oklahoma’s license in Coffman’s name. (Department of Justice)
In and around 2003, Campbell moved to Weed, New Mexico, where he bought a property of 44 acres in the name of Coffman while continued to renew the fraudulent passport.
His scheme began to crumble in 2019 when he went to renew his driver’s license from New Mexico under the name of Coffman using a passport with the name of Coffman.
The agents of the Fraud Prevention Unit of the National Passport Center soon discovered the death of Coffman and the alleged fraudulent use of their decades.
On February 19, the authorities descended to their property to carry out a search for their property in Weed, where they said that Campbell was armed with a range rifle, placing itself in a high and partially hidden place.
After repeated orders and the flashbangs deployment, Campbell left the wood line and was arrested. When it was recovered, the rifle was loaded with high -power ammunition capable of drilling the standard body armor and ready to shoot, with open reach covers, the selecting lever was lit to shoot and a round chamber.
The authorities discovered 57 firearms and large amounts of property ammunition. As a fugitive, Campbell is prohibited from having firearms. Then the digital footprints were carried out, which confirmed his true identity and his fugitive state.
Jason Mower, spokesman for the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office He reflected on the importance of Campbell’s capture, pointing out how the case had remained a constant presence in the department for years.
“The Campbell Wanted poster has been on the wall in our office since I started here almost 20 years,” said Mower. “I have worked hundreds of fugitive cases, helping to track and capture fugitives throughout the country. But never Campbell, each lead cooled, regardless of the tools we use. Now, I finally understand why.”
Campbell’s range rifle. (Department of Justice)
Joe Tomich, sheriff of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s office, emphasized the scale of the case, from its violent origins to the search for decades and the dramatic resolution.
“It is almost difficult to understand this case: the cold and calculated nature of the original crime, the decades of search and then, after all this time, a tense confrontation in the mountains of New Mexico,” Tomich said.
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“We have all taken our shifts trying to catch Campbell. I have a case file about him in the size of a novel, full of potential clients that did not go anywhere. But we never gave ourselves, and now we finally know why he was always one step ahead.”
Campbell appeared in the Federal Court on Wednesday in New Mexico for fraud charges related to the use of a stolen identity.
If it is convicted, it faces up to 10 years in federal prison before the extradition to Wyoming to be tried by the bombing of 1982. The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s office has placed an arrest to ensure that it is returned to Wyoming once it concludes the federal procedures.
