Federal authorities captured accused double-murder suspect Derrick Yancey on Saturday in the Central American coastal town of Punta Gorda, Belize.

Jeffery Mann, the DeKalb County Sheriff's chief deputy sheriff, said Monday that Yancy, who fled custody in April, was arrested by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Security while sitting at a bar in the Belizean neighborhood he was living in.

Yancey’s arrest ends a five-and-a-half-month manhunt that began on April 4 after he escaped house arrest at his mother’s home in Jonesboro.

Yancey, 50, cut his ankle monitoring bracelet and fled the state by Greyhound bus.

At the time of his escape, he was out on $150,000 bond for the June 9, 2008, murders of his wife of 17 years, Linda Yancey, 44, and Guatemalan day laborer Marcial Cax Puluc, 20, at his Southland subdivision home in Stone Mountain.

Yancey initially told investigators that he killed Puluc in self-defense after Puluc shot Linda Yancey, who was an officer at the DeKalb County Jail, during a robbery attempt.

Forensic evidence later determined Yancey was lying and he was arrested. Investigators believe he killed both people.

Before his arrest, Yancey was last sighted on April 6 at a Greyhound bus station in Phoenix, Ariz.

Mann said law enforcement agents apprehended Yancey after a member of the Sheriff's Office's fugitive squad received a tip that he had attempted to contact family members.

The U.S. Marshal’s Southeast Regional Taskforce located Yancey in Punta Gorda, a resort and fishing town on the Caribbean Sea.

Mann said Yancey, who is now in jail in Belize, will be extradited to DeKalb. Mann said he did not know when Yancey would be returned to DeKalb.

Mann said investigators were not sure how long Yancey had been in Punta Gorda or how he got there.

Sandra Hannon, Linda Yancey’s sister, said she was glad it did not take 10 years to find Yancey.

“There is a sense of relief,“ she said. "I think I would like to lay eyes on him.”