FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The only woman on the '15 most wanted list' has been arrested with her son and daughter, who are charged with hiding her from facing charges of murder and running a $250-million-a-year drug ring.
Judith Haas McNelis, 41, was arrested without resistance by U.S. marshals Saturday night at the Ocean Walk Motel where she had been hiding with her children for nearly a month.
Agents had been looking for McNelis since her July 1983 escape from the city jail in Valdosta, Ga. She was placed on the 'most wanted' list in January 1984.
McNelis was awaiting trial for drug violations at the time of her escape and also was charged with first degree murder in the drug-related killing of Frank Maars in Palm Beach, Fla.
Her son David McNelis, 20, was charged with harboring a fugitive and ordered held under $250,000 bond. Melanie McNelis, 18, also was charged with harboring a fugitive and held on $100,000 bond.
All three were to appear today before U.S. Magistrate Patricia Kyle.
Police said before her arrest in Macon, Ga., McNelis headed a $250-million-a-year drug organization.
A codefendant in the homicide case, John Parella, already has been convicted.
McNelis' apprehension was the second from the '15 most wanted' list in 24 hours, said U.S. Marshal Daniel J. Horgan in Miami. Early Saturday, James Lee Greathouse was arrested in Independence, Mo.
He had been sought for failure to appear on firearms violations charges in 1978 and also had been sought by Kansas City, Mo., police since 1978 on escape charges.
McNelis and her children had beenon the run since the end of December, officers said, and evidently had been living in the Fort Lauderdale motel since Feb. 1.
Federal officers said they received a tip where the trio was hiding. The mother and son were apprehended at the motel. The daughter was arrested an hour later at a fast food restaurant.
Replacing McNelis on the list of most wanted is Marilyn Jean Buck, 37, who escaped from a West Virginia correctional institution in June 1977 and is also being sought in connection with an October 1981 armed robbery of an armored truck in Nyack, N.Y., in which two police officers and a guard were killed.