NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – After more than four decades, Stephen Craig Campbell, one of the United States’ most wanted men, is now behind bars.
Investigators have been searching for Campbell since he vanished in 1983 while out on bond and facing charges of attempted first degree murder. Investigators had arrested him in Wyoming in 1982 after Campbell allegedly created a bomb and planted it at his estranged wife’s boyfriend’s house where it exploded, injuring his wife and setting fire to the building.
In the ensuing decades, Campbell started a new life under an identity stolen from Walter Lee Coffman, a University of Arkansas graduate who died at the age of 22 in 1975, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Mexico.
Campbell allegedly used a photo of himself and his current address to apply for a passport under Coffman’s name in 1984. Investigators said he went on to renew it multiple times.
According to the release, Campbell also successfully obtained a replacement Social Security card with the alias in 1995 using an Oklahoma driver’s license also bearing Coffman’s name.
“I’m assuming at some point he probably started forgetting that he was who he was, and he did what he did,” said Special Agent in Charge Raul Bujanda, Federal Bureau of Investigations Albuquerque Office.
Campbell and Coffman both attended the University of Arkansas engineering program during the same period prior to Coffman’s death, “suggesting a likely connection between the two,” according to the DOJ.
The FBI does not know how the original Walter Lee Coffman died. They suspect Campbell received approximately $140,000 dollars in U.S. government funds through Social Security in Coffman’s name.
“If this were to happen today, the likelihood of someone being able to go 40 years from today to evade law enforcement, I say that opportunity or that chance is slim to none,” said Bujanda.
In 2003, Campbell relocated to Weed, New Mexico where he purchased property and has lived ever since. “He picked a location where he would not be found easily,” said Bujanda.
One of the burning questions in this case is how did he get away with it for so long? Bujanda responded, “I think a lot of it is because from what we learned through the investigation is he stayed in his home quite a bit.”
After decades of successfully evading law enforcement, things started to fall apart for Campbell in 2019, however, when he visited the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Department.
Authorities say Campbell managed to renew his driver’s license using documents under Coffman’s name, including his old driver’s license, passport and Social Security card. His identity fell apart, however, after agents from the National Passport Center’s Fraud Prevention Unit discovered Coffman’s death and suspected his ID had been stolen and used for decades, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
When agents and local law enforcement approached Campbell’s home on February 19th, they found him heavily armed. “He came out ready for a fight,” said Bujanda.
Law enforcement found 57 firearms and large quantities of ammunition at his property. Campbell ultimately surrendered. “Had he seen, like, a smaller presence, he might have fought,” said Bujanda.
“During the arrest, Campbell allegedly greeted law enforcement armed with a scoped rifle, positioning himself in an elevated, partially concealed spot,” the release states. “After repeated orders and the deployment of flashbangs, Campbell emerged from the wood line and was detained. When recovered, the rifle was loaded with high-powered ammunition capable of piercing standard body armor and ready to fire, with the scope caps flipped open, the selector lever set to fire, and a round chambered.”
Campbell is charged with passport fraud but Bujanda said more charges could be added for the firearms found on his property.
Before his arrest, Campbell had been on the United States marshals Most Wanted List for more than four decades.
Read: Read More