SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Fifteen years ago, U.S. Marshals descended on a Carmel Valley home and arrested the woman later dubbed the ‘Fugitive Soccer Mom.’
“That was the day I answered the door, and when I answered it, someone was holding my mugshot," said Susan LeFevre, aka Marie Walsh.
On that day the U.S. Marshals showed up at her home, LeFevre's double life of more than 30 years was exposed.
“It was the end of one life and the beginning of another. Everything changed,” she said.
Decades before that day, her life also changed.
At the age of 19, LeFevre was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison in Michigan for a drug sale of less than a teaspoon of heroin.
She says 14 months later after a guard threatened to sexually assault her, she climbed a prison fence and began a new life under the name Marie Walsh.
She got married, had three children, and ended up in San Diego, revealing nothing to her family.
When asked if she ever stopped looking over her shoulder, she answered, “No, I knew that I couldn’t … I always wondered, when will it happen?”
In 2008, a tip led to her arrest and a tidal wave of publicity.
She pleaded guilty and, more than a year later, was released from a Michigan prison.
“I did lose my husband, my marriage, my home, and friends I thought were my friends, and then my children were very traumatized,” she said. “I now go by Marie Walsh. I was just a different person, so I was now Marie.”
In 2011, she released her memoir, ‘A Tale of Two Lives.’ She launched herself into volunteer and advocacy work. Walsh remains in the San Diego area, living in Pacific Beach.
In 2020, ABC 10News reported on her participation as she protested against racial injustice in the legal system, advocating for non-violent offenders with long sentences, just like her.
A year and a half ago, she tried to help a close friend with a fentanyl addiction. He was on Medicaid and was seeking a treatment center.
“We made hundreds of calls for months and couldn't find a place for him in San Diego,” said Walsh.
Immersing herself in the issues, she started a Facebook page called ‘Mothers Against Fentanyl Addiction.’
“I am trying to alert parents that they have to talk to their kids,” said Walsh. “This is my chance to give back. To help others in the same place I was, to help them get out of their struggle."
Walsh says she'll research topics related to fentanyl and posting blogs on her Facebook page.
She'll also be working on a sequel to her memoir but doesn't have a release date.
