DOVER, Delaware — Delaware prison officials say a convicted killer who was serving a life sentence for murder and once spent five years on the lam after an escape has died.
Officials said 69-year-old Ralph Duonnolo died Saturday after a lengthy illness.
Duonnolo, who asked the state Board of Pardons in April to commute his sentence, was convicted in the 1975 stabbing death of 31-year-old Rochelle Annette van Kellenburg, also known as Rochelle Kelly.
Kelly was found dead after she disappeared from the parking lot of the Turf Club on Route 40 in Bear.
After being sentenced to prison, Duonnolo escaped from a minimum-security facility in 1995 and spent five years on the loose before authorities tracked him down in Florida.
Duonnolo's body has been turned over to the state medical examiner's office.
