Utah parole officials have issued an arrest warrant for 57-year-old Frank Gene Powell after he walked away from a Salt Lake City halfway house and was listed as “escaped” by federal authorities. Powell, a convicted murderer who later admitted to a 2020 elder-fraud conspiracy, has a criminal history stretching back decades and is now under renewed scrutiny after he failed to return to community confinement in mid-January.
Warrant And "Escaped" Status
Per KSL, the Federal Bureau of Prisons says Powell was transferred from FCI Terminal Island to community confinement overseen by the BOP's Phoenix Residential Reentry Management Office on June 25, 2025. He was later placed on the inmate locator as "escaped" after he failed to return to his assigned residential reentry center on Jan. 16. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole followed up by issuing a state arrest warrant for Powell on Jan. 30, 2026, according to reporting.
Federal Sentence And Fraud Case
Powell was sentenced in federal court to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2020 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and related counts in an elder-fraud "romance" scheme. Prosecutors say he was ordered to pay $273,849.20 in restitution. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah described Powell as a repeat offender and said the scheme targeted an 80-year-old woman, per a Department of Justice press release.
Violent History And Parole
Powell's record dates back to the late 1980s. Court documents and opinions detail that he struck and killed Glen Candland after an altercation in Pleasant Grove on Nov. 29, 1987, a case that led to a second-degree murder conviction in the 1990s. Reporting and court records show he was later paroled from state custody around 2017 and was prosecuted federally for the elder-fraud scheme while he was still under state supervision.
Where He Left Custody
Federal officials confirmed the residential reentry center Powell failed to return to is Cornell Corrections Inc. in Salt Lake City. Residents there are allowed to leave for work and approved activities, the Bureau of Prisons told local reporters. Powell's failure to report back led the BOP to update its inmate locator with his "escaped" status and prompted the state's parole board to seek his arrest, according to reporting.
What Authorities Say And Next Steps
The Bureau of Prisons told reporters it generally does not issue public press releases when inmates walk away from community confinement, explaining that those incidents are instead reported to appropriate law enforcement agencies, according to ABC4. The United States Marshals Service, which leads federal fugitive apprehensions and works with state and local partners, is typically the federal agency involved in tracking and arresting escaped inmates, per the Marshals' public materials.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about Powell's whereabouts to contact local law enforcement or the U.S. Marshals Service. With the Board of Pardons and Parole's warrant in place and the BOP's "escaped" designation, Powell is considered both a federal and state fugitive, and officials say searches are ongoing. This story will be updated as law enforcement agencies release more details.
