DETROIT – On the surface, Marie Walsh seemed to be living the perfect life in California. She was married, had children and was living in a beautiful home in sunny San Diego. But she was harboring a secret, a lie.
She had grown up as Susan Lefevre in Michigan, but after a drug-related crime conviction, she broke out of prison, changed her name and fled across the county.
In 2008, following up a new lead, investigators tracked her down and showed up at her home in California to take her back to prison. She was released in 2009 and admits her mistake, but said her original sentence was unfair because the drugs didn't belong to her.
"I was definitely set up by an officer that had done this to a lot of people and had falsified evidence," Walsh said. "It's proven in a lot of appeals and things. In my case, it's pretty obvious. There was less than $20 and they gave me basically a life sentence."
Walsh said many of the inmates she met in Michigan were also set up or took the blame for a former lover.
Walsh said she bonded with one particular inmate, Tracy Lynn Cowan, who is serving years in prison for drug-related crimes.
"I saw that in her record that she was a child care worker, she babysat, she was a college student, she had gone to college, and was a college graduate," Walsh said. "After meeting Tracy, I felt it was very obvious that she is bright, articulate. And I believe she is totally innocent. I pretty much know that she is innocent. I think that she was just from a neighborhood where it's just very a poor neighborhood in Detroit, and it's just a matter of time before your number is up."
Walsh said she's working to bring attention to Cowan's case because she said not enough is being done to help those like her when they are put behind bars. Walsh also said she was mistreated by guards and has witnessed guards abusing their power.
"They are disturbed to the point that they just single out mostly vulnerable prisoners and they do target prisoners, and they do it constantly. For them, it's common," Walsh said.
Walsh admits that she was also written up for bad behavior, but she said she and other female inmates felt helpless.
"The whole facilities are so destructive. They could be so much more geared toward rehabilitation," Walsh said.
She has written a book, "A Tale of Two Lives," about her experience and said she will continue to reach out and help others like her.