Escaped spammer found dead in murder-suicide

"Spam King" Edward Davidson, who recently disappeared from the Colorado minimum security facility where he was serving 21 months for tax evasion and e-mail fraud, was found dead yesterday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Davidson ran a company called Power Promoters from 2002 to 2007 that, among other things, promoted penny stock companies by sending out thousands of spam e-mails with falsified headers. When he was indicted in June 2007, the IRS reported that Davidson had collected over $3.5 million without paying taxes.

In May, Davidson reported to Florence Federal Correctional Complex, a federal work camp outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, to serve his sentence. He escaped custody on Sunday, and was being tracked by the IRS, FBI, and US Marshals.

Responding to a report of gunfire in the small town of Bennet, Colorado on Thursday morning, local deputies found Davidson, his 29 year-old wife, Amy Lee Ann Hill, and their 3 year-old daughter dead from gunshot wounds in and around a parked SUV.

An infant boy was found unharmed in a carseat in the back of the SUV, and a female teenage witness was shot in the neck, currently reported to be in the University of Colorado Hospital in serious condition.