'Have You Seen This Man?': ABC News podcast tracks manhunt for escaped child killer Lester Eubanks

ByLisa Bartley KABC logo
Thursday, October 24, 2019
'Have You Seen This Man?' podcast tracks child killer with SoCal ties
ABC News' podcast "Have You Seen This man?" follows the nationwide manhunt for escaped prisoner and convicted child killer Lester Eubanks, who is known to have lived in the Southern California area in the 1990s.

The ABC News Investigative Unit teams up with U.S. Marshals in the hunt for notorious child killer Lester Eubanks, who has lived in various locations around Southern California in the past.

The manhunt is documented in ABC News' new six-part podcast "Have You Seen This Man," hosted by Sunny Hostin of "The View."

Over six episodes, ABC News peels back the curtain on Eubanks' crimes and escape, featuring exclusive interviews with key players who knew both Eubanks and his victim, Mary Ellen Deener.

Eubanks shot and bludgeoned 14-year-old Mary to death in 1965 in Mansfield, Ohio. He was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972.

One year later, Eubanks received permission to embark on an unaccompanied "good behavior" shopping trip just before Christmas. While on the trip, Eubanks slipped away and was never seen again.

Eubanks has been on the run for more than 45 years.

"We know that in the 1990s Lester Eubanks lived in Long Beach and also South Central. We also know he worked at a hospital downtown, likely as a janitor," Hostin said. "His ID that he used was his fishing license."

ABC News Senior Investigative Reporter Matthew Mosk shadows Deputy U.S. Marshal David Siler as the group tirelessly searches for Eubanks. Mosk and Hostin tell ABC7 that Eubanks lived at various times in Long Beach, South Los Angeles and Hawthorne.

"We also know that he rode the RTD bus and that he's an artist and actually a pretty capable artist," says Hostin. "And so perhaps he did sketches somewhere in Hollywood, perhaps he was doing sketches in downtown. And so we know for certain that he made friends, he had acquaintances, that people in Los Angeles most certainly would know and would have seen Mr. Eubanks."

The first two episodes of "Have You Seen This Man?" are available now.