Montana fugitive on the run 38 years found running wedding chapel in southern Arizona

Fugitive on the run 38 years found running chapel

HELENA, Mont. — A hitchhiker convicted of killing a Montana man who picked him up during a 1951 blizzard has been found running a wedding chapel in Arizona — 38 years after he skipped out on parole.

Frank Dryman was found after the victim’s descendants hired an investigator who tracked the fugitive to his Arizona City, Ariz., notary and chapel business, where he was known as Victor Houston.

Now 78, Dryman was arrested Tuesday by police and is awaiting extradition to Montana.

Dryman was sentenced in 1955 to life in prison. He was paroled in 1969, and three years later, he disappeared. No Montana offender had been missing longer.

Clem Pellett is the victim’s grandson. The Bellevue, Wash., surgeon says he pursued the killer to fill a hole in his family’s memory.