SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego mother of three who was living with her family in an affluent Carmel Valley neighborhood is a fugitive wanted in Michigan for breaking out of prison three decades ago, federal officials said Tuesday.

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Jailhouse Interview | Images

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Susan Lefevre, 53, escaped from a Michigan prison camp 32 years ago. She had served a year of a 10- to 20-year sentence on drug charges when she escaped from Detroit House of Corrections in 1976.

Until her arrest by federal marshals on Thursday, Lefevre was living under the name Marie Walsh with her husband and three children in Carmel Valley. Investigators said Walsh's husband told them he had no idea about his wife's criminal past.

Her husband said Wednesday that the wife he knew was kind and compassionate.

"We're still just getting over this but it's been a tremendous shock to us," Alan Walsh, her husband of 23 years, told The Associated Press. He said the pair met in California and have three children.

U.S. marshals said that the Michigan Department of Corrections recently received an anonymous tip that led to Lefevre. Investigators said they confirmed her identity by examining Walsh's California license thumbprint and comparing it to her prints on file with Michigan law enforcement.

"She initially denied being Susan Lefevre. Then after presenting her with the facts, she came clean," said U.S. Marshal Steve Jurman.

"She managed to change her identity in a way that she was living her life in a normal way," he said. "It appeared she was living a productive life -- other than her history. There are certainly mixed emotions" in connection with her re-arrest Jurman said.

Lefevre married Alan D. Walsh in Orange County in 1985, when she was 29 and he was 28. The couple moved into brand-new home in the 5000 block of Seagrove Cove in 1999. With work they did on the property, including the installation of a pool, its value has increased to more than $800,000, according to the San Diego County Assessor's Office.

Lefavre was booked into Los Colinas Women's Detention Facility. She will more than likely be returned to Michigan to face conspiracy to violate drug laws, Jurman said.

As recently as March 2007, Walsh worked at Waste Management of California, which is located in Oceanside. According to published reports, he was a district manager for the company.

The couple has been mentioned as donors to the Boys & Girls Club of America in both the San Diego Metropolitan Magazine and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Lefevre In Jailhouse Interview: 'I Just Needed To Get Out Of There'

Lefevre, who is currently being held at Los Colinas Women's Detention Facility, told NBC affiliate KNSD-TV on Tuesday night that she made a big mistake in 1975 when she went along with a friend to deliver some drugs.

Video: Jailhouse Interview Part 1
Part 2 | Part 3

"It was a couple of hundred dollars worth of drugs -- a transaction that my friend did -- and I was just there in the car," Lefevre said in the jailhouse interview.

Lefevre said an undercover agent arrested both of them. She said she thought she would be put on probation, but instead she received a 10- to 20-year prison sentence.

After serving a year at the Michigan minimum-security prison, Lefevre said, she decided to run. She climbed over the fence and took off.

"My grandfather was waiting a few blocks away," Lefevre said. "I thought they were going to shoot me, but I didn't care. I just needed to get out of there. It was a very wrong thing to do."

Lefevre said she hopes to be pardoned by a Michigan judge after she is extradited.

"I've been through 30 years of paying off a debt," Lefevre said. "I hope there is some consideration that I did turn my life around."

Husband Issues Statement

Her husband issued the following statement:

"I've known my wife, Marie, for over 23 years, and she is a person of the highest integrity. During that time, she has been a caring and wonderful wife and mother. She has raised three beautiful children and has worked hard to build a good life for them in this community.

"She is a kind, intelligent, compassionate mother who's dedicated her life to the well being of her children. Our family is now threatened to be destroyed by something that happened when Marie was a 19-year-old teenager, 34 years ago in Michigan.

"Since then, she has been a model citizen and upstanding member of the community. She has the full support of her extended family and many friends in the area."