Convicted murderer back behind bars

Chicago, Ill. (WISH) - She's been on the run since August, but now 29-year old Sarah Pender is back behind bars. Officers found her in Chicago late Saturday night, after some one tipped off police.

"It's a huge arrest, the most wanted woman in America," Doug Garrison with the Indiana Department of Correction said.

Someone tipped off Chicago police after they recognized Pender on an episode of America's Most Wanted Saturday evening.

"We knew this woman was going to get caught. You can't stay underground that long without somebody knowing or thinking I recognize that person. And again when you put them on tv like that, it just takes one, and that's all it took in this case," Garrison said.

Pender was serving a 110 year prison sentence for killing two people here in Indianapolis nearly eight years ago.

She escaped the Rockville Correctional Facility back in August with help from insiders. Officers say 41-year old Scott Spitler, a guard at the prison, used a van to sneak Pender out of the facility. Once she was outside the facility, she got in another car with a friend, Jamie Long. Long had been on Pender's visitors list and had communicated with her before she escaped.

"All of her accomplices, at least the immediate accomplices, are in custody in jail there are several others that must of helped her time away that part of the investigation will be ongoing," Garrison said.

Long pleaded guilty to the crime in September and was sentenced to seven years in the Indiana Department of Correction.

Officer Spitler has yet to be sentenced for his part in the crime.

When Pender is extradited to Indiana she will be put in an isolation cell at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis.