Married 'child rapists' who have been on the FBI's most wanted list for 18 years are finally TRACKED DOWN - after man died and his wife used a wanted alias to arrange his funeral.

A husband and wife accused of child rape who had been on the run from authorities for almost two decades were finally tracked down this week. 


Leon Shaw and wife Victoria Cravitz, from Oregon, fled their Oregon homes in 2000 after being accused of sexually abusing four children, including Cravitz's daughter. She was arrested in Mississippi on Wednesday after Shaw died of an infection in hospital and she used one of his wanted aliases to try and arrange his funeral.

She is now being extradited to Oregon where she was previously charged with three counts of first-degree rape and one count of first-degree sodomy. If convicted, the 56-year-old can expect to spend the rest of her life behind bars. Police were first alerted to Shaw and Cravitz in 1999, when three people claiming to be previous victims of the couple contacted officers. 

The trio said they were concerned that three children who were still in the couple's care were also being abused, the Herald and News reports.Police subsequently accused Shaw and Cravitz of abusing four girls aged between six and 17 between 1989 and 1999. 

One of the victims was Cravitz's biological daughter. Officers say the couple forced two 10-year-olds to have sex with each other, while at least one child was raped by an adult. One of the victims said she was kidnapped by the couple, impregnated by Shaw, and was forced to give birth to his child. She managed to escape from the couple, but was forced to leave her child behind.

 Police issued a warrant to search the couple's home in 1999, prompting them to flee to California, where Cravitz's parents lived. They were charged in 2000, with Shaw facing five counts of first-degree rape, four counts of first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of first-degree sodomy.

FBI agents moved in and arrested Cravitz. She had been living under the name Jennifer Larsen. The couple apparently had lived south of Greenville, Mississippi, for about 15 years and supported themselves through Cravitz's work cleaning houses and Shaw's woodworking art. 'They had been on the run for a long time.

 They always lived in rural areas,' district attorney Eve Costello said. 'They didn't have a lot of contact with people and they moved constantly.' Cravitz made an initial court appearance in Jackson, Mississippi, Thursday on a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and is expected to be returned to Oregon.

 Federal court documents show she waived a hearing to determine her identity, as well as a preliminary hearing, and was ordered transferred by the judge.