SPOKANE – Four years to the day after he skipped the country following a horrific auto accident that killed three students near Pullman, Frederick D. Russell was captured in Dublin, Ireland, authorities said Monday.
Russell, 27, was arrested without incident Sunday by the Irish National Police at a lingerie store in Dublin, where he worked as a security guard, U.S. Marshal Michael Kline said.
It is unclear when, if ever, Russell will be extradited to the United States to face multiple charges of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault, Kline said.
“This can be a very long process,” said Tom Hopkins of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Spokane, adding that the past 18 extradition requests made by the United States have been denied by Ireland.
The Marshals Service received a tip about Russell last January, shortly after he became the first allegedly drunken driver ever placed on the agency’s 15 most wanted list.
After verifying the tip, officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Whitman County prepared an exhaustive extradition request, and then had to wait for Irish officials to process the request and for a judge there to sign an arrest warrant, Kline said.
“The last nine months have been nerve-racking,” Kline said. “We knew one leak could have caused Frederick Russell to flee and disappear again.”
Russell, who was living under the alias David Carroll, can challenge his extradition in Irish courts, and can have a bail hearing, Kline said. He has the right to appeal any decision made in Ireland.
Russell is being held in an Irish jail, Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers said.
“We’re certainly glad Mr. Russell’s been captured,” Myers said. “It’s been a long time.”
Survivors and relatives of the accident victims said Russell’s capture sparked mixed emotions.
“I was shocked, I couldn’t say anything,” Karen Overaker, mother of Brandon Clements, told KREM-TV of Spokane. “I’m glad he was caught, but I’m afraid for the trial.”
Clements was one of three students killed.
One of the survivors, Kara Eichelsdoerfer of Central Park, suffered a broken pelvis, a broken back, a bruised heart and other injuries, and continues to suffer.
“Even last November I had to miss three days of school because of bad pain in my pelvis,” she told KHQ-TV of Spokane. She said she hopes the extradition goes smoothly.
Russell has been living with a woman in Ireland and working at a store called “Extrovert Boutique,” Kline said. He was believed to be in the country illegally, Kline said.
A former Washington State University student, Russell was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and four counts of vehicular assault in the 2001 accident that killed three people and injured four others on Highway 270, the two-lane road that connects the college towns of Pullman and Moscow, Idaho.
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