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Federal authorities are looking for Colorado's most notorious spammer.

Eddie Davidson, 35, of Louisville walked away from a minium security prison camp in Florence on Sunday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

The agency did not release the circumstances. He had been in the work camp about five weeks of a 21-month sentence.

Davidson was sentenced in April after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and falsifying information in e-mail pitches for low-cost, high risk "penny" stocks.

Investigators said Davidson's company would change the header to make the spam appear to be from more credible sources, such as America Online.

Davidson said he sent the pitches on behalf of a Houston company he did not identify.

Besides prison time, Davidson was ordered to pay the Internal Revenue Service $714,139.

Federal agents seized property Davidson had bought with his penny-stock spam profits, including gold coins, to help settle his tax debt. The amount he still owes, if any, was not available Monday night.

Court filings showed that Davidson's spam operation grossed about $3.5 million between 2003 and 2006.

Davidson's Bennett-based business, Power Promoters, sent hundreds of thousands of unsolicited sales pitches to e-mail addresses around the world, selling a variety of products.

Davidson, who had been sentenced to 21 months of in Federal prison in April, along with paying $714,139 in restitution to the IRS, escaped from the Federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado. He made a run for it when his wife visited him and is now officially listed in "escape" status.

A statement from the US Attorney's Office says that the US Marshalls are leading the search for Davidson, last seen in Lakewood, CO, and are being aided by the FBI, IRS, and the Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force.

Fugitive 'Spam King' Found Dead With Family

Davidson reportedly forced his wife to help him leave the minimum-security federal prison in Colorado where he was serving time for his role in spam scams.

Edward Davidson, the "spam king" who reportedly forced his wife to help him escape from a Colorado prison on Sunday, has killed himself, a woman, and a toddler, according to The Denver Post.

Earlier Thursday, Colorado NBC affiliate 9News.com reported that three people had been found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in the area of East Arkansas Place, near the town of Bennett, Colo.

The identities of the victims were not disclosed at the time.
Responding to an inquiry from InformationWeek, an officer with the Lakewood, Colo., police department said that he had heard that Davidson might have been involved in the incident, but that he could not confirm that.

The Denver Post and 9News.com have since reported that the victims are Davidson and his family.

An article in The Rocky Mountain News said that Davidson had forced his wife to help him leave the minimum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo., in order to return to his wife's home in Lakewood for a change of clothes.

The story said that he was last seen leaving in her 2006 silver Toyota Sequoia but did not say that anyone was with him at the time.

Reached at the crime scene, Mark Campbell, undersheriff for Arapahoe County, said he could not confirm the identities of the victims until further investigative work was done and the next of kin were notified. However, he did confirm that the vehicle at the scene is a Toyota (NYSE: TM) SUV.

"At about 11:15 a.m. this morning, sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the 4300 block of East Arkansas Place, which is in unincorporated Arapahoe County, Colo.," said Campbell. "That is southwest of the town of Bennett, Colo.

"When deputies arrived on the scene, we did find a male adult, deceased, by the driver's door of a silver SUV," said Campbell. "We did find a female adult, deceased, by the passenger door of the SUV, and we did find a 7- to 8-month-old little boy in the back seat who appeared to be uninjured, but he was transported by rescue personnel as a precaution. Unfortunately, inside the car we also found a little girl who we believe was about 3 years old and she was deceased. We did find another victim who was shot and who managed to run to a neighbor's house. She's a teenage girl and she was transported with a gunshot wound, but she was coherent and talking to rescue personnel."

Davidson had served less than two months of his 21-month prison sentence when he escaped.