However, Michigan authorities said Wednesday that Lefevre was a major drug trafficker whose drug-dealing operation was making about $2,000 a week selling heroin. Undercover officers bought from her at least twice and a search of her Saginaw apartment turned up $500 to $600 in cash, paraphernalia for cutting heroin and photos that showed she was acquainted with the “higher-ups” in the Saginaw drug world, said Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan.
He said the sentence reflected the severity of her crimes.
“In 1975, you didn't get 10 years for being a minor trafficker,” Marlan said.
Michigan state police believed that Lefevre used others to sell the drugs for her. However, she was not believed to be a heavy narcotic user, Marlan said.
She escaped by walking away early the morning of Feb. 26, 1976, using a pass that allowed her to work at a clinic, Marlan said. Around 7:30 a.m., an hour after she left the prison grounds, the clinic called and said she did not show up for work.
A fugitive warrant for her arrest was issued the next day.
The department also listed six aliases for her, including Susan Grham and Susan Lafure.
Lefevre will be required to finish at least nine years of her sentence, Marlan said. Any mitigating circumstances about how and what she had done with her life since her escape would not be heard until she is up for parole, he said.
He said there is no appeal process unless a court intervenes, something Marlan said he has never seen happen.
“She was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison and she escaped,” Marlan said. “She's got a prison sentence and she's got to finish it.”
It definitely gives a much fuller picture of this character.
It's interesting that her Vietnam boyfriend was killed in America seven years after she was sentenced, not in Vietnam before she got involved in drugdealing - as the original article implied.
It's also interesting that she escaped from a work release at a civilian clinic - not in a daring over-the-wall escape from a violent prison as she claimed.
This woman has created a fictional reality she still inhabits, it would seem.
It's also interesting that her husband will not say if he was aware of her past or not.
Thanks again.