LOS ANGELES -- An escaped convict who had been jailed for sending huge numbers of junk emails has been found dead with his wife and daughter in an apparent murder-suicide, Colorado police said Friday.

Edward Davidson, 35, dubbed the "spam king" after being sentenced to 21 months in prison in May, was found dead by his car on Thursday, four days after he escaped from a minimum security prison in Florence, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Denver.

The bodies of Davidson's wife and the couple's three-year-old daughter were found nearby. The couple's seven-month old son, who was also in the car, was unharmed.

According to the Denver Post, Davidson's 16-year-old daughter was wounded with a shot in the neck before managing to escape and raising the alarm.

According to Justice Department documents, Davidson was a specialist in spam emails promoting ultra-cheap "penny stocks" to investors, touting them as good investments.

Davidson's escape came in the same week that another criminal known as the "spam king", Robert Soloway, was jailed for nearly four years by a court in Seattle after pleading guilty to sending millions of junk emails.