With his red hair, pale skin and fake Irish accent, Frederick D. Russell could easily hide in the underground economy of Dublin, Ireland, U.S. Marshal Mike Kline said.

The power of the Internet was his undoing. Shortly after his image appeared on the Marshals Service 15 Most Wanted list, a tipster recognized Russell and contacted U.S. authorities.

Russell, 27, who likely entered Ireland illegally after flying to England and was living under the alias David Carroll, had a girlfriend and worked for years as a security guard at "Extrovert Boutique," a lingerie store, Kline said.

U.S. law enforcement officers thought Russell was living in Canada. Even though they have not yet interviewed him, they now believe he flew to England immediately after fleeing the United States on Oct. 23, 2001.

The Marshals Service received a tip about Russell in January, shortly after he became the first accused drunken driver to make the agency's Most Wanted list.

After verifying the tip, officials in the U.S. attorney's office and Whitman County prepared an exhaustive extradition request, then waited for Irish officials to process it and for a judge there to sign an arrest warrant, Kline said.

Russell can challenge his extradition in Irish courts, is entitled to a bail hearing and has the right to appeal any decision made in Ireland, Kline said.

A former Washington State University student, Russell was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and four counts of vehicular assault in a 2001 accident that killed three people and injured four others on state Highway 270, the two-lane road that connects the college towns of Pullman, Wash., and Moscow, Idaho.

Accident reports said Russell was driving a Chevrolet Blazer at about 90 mph and trying to pass other vehicles when he struck three cars the night of June 4, 2001. All the dead and seriously injured were returning from a movie in one car.

Killed were WSU seniors Brandon Clements, 22, of Wapato; Stacy G. Morrow, 21, of Milton, and Ryan Sorensen, 21, of Westport. Seriously injured were John Wagner of Harrington, Kara Eichelsdoerfer of Central Park and Sameer Ranade of Kennewick. The fourth vehicular assault charge involved a person in another vehicle.

Russell suffered minor injuries. At a hospital after the crash, his blood-alcohol level measured .12 percent, well above the legal intoxication threshold of .08.

In October 2001, Russell's lawyer failed in a bid to quash the blood-alcohol test on grounds that it was administered by a Washington State Patrol trooper although the accident scene was just across the border into Idaho.

At that point, prosecutors contend Russell sold some baseball cards, apparently took $1,300 from his father's bank account and fled on Oct. 23, 2001, resulting in charges of bail jumping and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Russell's father, Gregory Russell, former head of WSU's criminal justice program and a former prosecutor, paid his son's $5,000 bail but has denied knowing he planned to flee.

Now head of the Criminology Department at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Gregory Russell did not return a telephone message on Monday. In the past, he has publicly urged his son to come home and face the charges.

"I left because I had no choice. Since the first day after the tragic accident, horrible things have been printed about me. Now people are so enraged that they would rather see me dead than receive a fair trial. I maintain my innocence. But my life has been repeatedly threatened, so I cannot stay."

Last January, the Marshals Service placed Russell on its Most Wanted list because of "the horrific nature of this car crash" and the fact Russell had fled. He was described as "armed and dangerous."

In December 2001, a friend of Russell was charged with witness tampering, accused of trying to get a bartender who had served Russell to change his story about how much the defendant drank.

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