Mary Ellen Deener

Case background and investigation

Mary Ellen Deener was 14 years old when she was killed in Mansfield, Ohio, on November 14, 1965. According to the U.S. Marshals Service account reported by Richland Source and Spectrum News, she had been walking to a laundromat to help with her family's washing. Wikipedia's summary of the case states that she was attacked during an attempted sexual assault, shot, and then struck on the head.

Lester Eubanks, then 22, was arrested the following day, according to Wikipedia. Richland Source reports that he was convicted on May 25, 1966, of murder committed during the perpetration of rape and was sentenced to death two days later. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1972, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated death sentences then in force.

On December 7, 1973, Eubanks was among inmates taken on an honor furlough to a shopping center in Columbus to do Christmas shopping. He was allowed to move around unsupervised and did not return. NBC News reported that investigators believe he later lived in the Los Angeles area under the name Victor Young, in communities including Gardena, Long Beach, North Hollywood and South Los Angeles, and that he may have worked as a janitor at a hospital in Lynwood around the late 1980s or early 1990s.

The U.S. Marshals Service cold case unit in northern Ohio took over the search in 2016, according to Richland Source. On December 7, 2018, the forty-fifth anniversary of the escape, Eubanks was added to the agency's 15 Most Wanted Fugitives list. A reward of up to $50,000 is offered for information leading to him. The case was featured in the Netflix series Unsolved Mysteries in October 2020, which NBC News said generated new leads, including photographs pointing to the Los Angeles area.

On May 27, 2025, the Marshals released updated age-progression images showing how Eubanks might look in his eighties. In November 2025, around the sixtieth anniversary of the killing, Spectrum News reported that the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office had retested clothing connected to the 1965 case and recovered Eubanks's DNA, a development U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott described as significant for confirming his identity if he is located. A deputy marshal told the outlet he believed someone had been in recent contact with the fugitive.

No report of Eubanks's capture or death was found as of September 2026. He would be 82 years old. The Marshals ask anyone with information to call 1-866-4-WANTED.