Willie Lee Austin broke out of prison two days after Christmas in 1981.

Wednesday, nearly 34 years after his escape from the Central State Correctional Institute, Austin was captured.

U.S. Marshals arrested Austin, now 60, and took him into custody without incident, Tony Schilling, supervisory inspector for the U.S. Marshals Service, said.

Austin was serving a 15-year sentence for armed robbery after being convicted in Muscogee County, Ga., Schilling said. He busted out on Dec. 27, 1981.

He had been on the loose ever since.

But Georgia Department of Corrections officers assigned to the marshals service regional fugitive task force conducted an investigation recently into the case.

During their investigation, they discovered a possible alias for Austin. Investigators subsequently found an address in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., that was linked to the alias. Members of the Florida Caribbean fugitive task force of the marshals service used the address to locate Austin.