Happy Birthday! Woman caught after 34 years escaping from jail.!!

Her neighbors knew Sharon Brown as a grandmother who hosted yard sales to benefit local Boy Scouts and who helped a family that lost its home to Hurricane Frances in 2004, reports Florida Today.

The 56-year-old lived at her Melbourne home for more than 20 years.

But on Tuesday the neighbors learned she was not the woman she claimed to be.

Her real name is Paula Eileen Carroll, and she had been a fugitive for 34 years since escaping from a Marion County prison two months into a five-year sentence for buying, receiving or concealing stolen property.

Acting on an anonymous tip, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office arrested Carroll outside her home -- on her 56th birthday.

Carroll was sentenced in Osceola County on July 18, 1975, and was serving her term at Florida Correctional Institution -- now Lowell Correctional Institution -- in Ocala. She escaped on Sept. 3, 1975, with another inmate, who was quickly captured.

She told police that she had "been thinking about this day for a long time" and was "glad it's over," according to a news release.

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