Jamal Starks, a 31-year-old New York man wanted for the 1997 murder of an armored car guard, managed to elude police for nearly five years. But he could not elude the Fox network.

On Tuesday, detectives from the New Haven and Suffolk, N.Y., police departments apprehended Starks after getting a tip from the popular crime program “America’s Most Wanted,” New Haven police said.

Starks, originally from Freeport, N.Y., was originally indicted in May 2000 on charges that he participated in an armored car robbery and a gunfight in which one of the guards, Andre Herring, was killed. Herring was shot in the head and body after Starks and two other men pulled up to the armored car in a bank parking lot.

According to New Haven police, the popular television crime program profiled Starks’ case and received information from a viewer that was later passed to both departments.

New Haven police said they found Starks at 127 Lexington Ave. Tuesday and took him into custody without incident. He appeared in Superior Court yesterday to be presented for extradition.

Suffolk County detective Lt. John Gierasch said although the other two men involved in the incident were arrested quickly based on witness testimony, “this particular defendant, we just weren’t able to locate.” Gierasch acknowledged the help provided by “America’s Most Wanted.”

“Obviously, it’s a powerful medium,” Gierasch said.

–Brian Ginsberg and The Associated Press