IONIA, Mich. – Two decades ago, Michael Elliott, the man who escaped from a Michigan prison on Sunday, had heard that Michael Tufnell had a lot of money.
Elliott was serving a life sentence for shooting and killing four people and burning down their home in 1993 in Gladwin County. The day before the killings, Tufnell spoke on the phone with one of Elliott's accomplices.
"My son told me and I said, 'Oh Michael, don't fight with people like that. That's the type of thing you see in the newspaper next day.' And that's true. That's what happened," said Tufnell's mother, Dorothy Tufnell.
Elliott and a partner went to Tufnell's home and executed him, his cousin and their girlfriends.
"Those two went in and they shot everybody and then they set the house on fire on top of them," said Tufnell's mother.
Today, two decades after her son's murder, Dorothy Tufnell says it still haunts her. She wonders how this convicted murderer got out.
"He was convicted of four murders and he has a life sentence with no parole, so I would think they'd keep better track of him, but, you know," she said.
Elliott was captured by police Monday evening in Indiana.
More: Police capture Michigan escaped prisoner in Indiana
Michael Tufnell