 "79-year-old Florida man who faked his own death arrested after 16 years on the run")
A 74-year-old Florida man who pretended to be dead to avoid arrest has been located in Indiana after nearly sixteen years in hiding. Gary Wayne Howard was taken into custody on Thursday at his home near Indianapolis by US Marshals, ending a fugitive search that began in 2010.
As he was escorted away, Howard reportedly told officers, “I had hoped to be dead before you caught up with me,” according to WXIN.
Howard was required to register as a lifelong sex offender in Florida after being convicted in 2007 of twenty two counts of possessing child pornography in Pinellas County. Three years later, he violated his probation and fled the state. Officials believe he abandoned an Enterprise rental car near Mauzy Lake in Morganfield, Kentucky, to make it appear he had taken his own life, a move investigators described as a deliberate attempt to stage his own death.
Tracked through Family Links in Indiana
An arrest warrant was issued in March 2011 when Howard failed to register as a sex offender. Records directed that the five-foot-five, 250-pound fugitive be returned safely to a court in Clearwater, Florida. Detectives later found that Howard had numerous relatives in Indiana who could help him remain hidden.
Surveillance eventually led authorities to a home in the Irvington area, where Howard was seen living. US Marshals arrested him on Thursday as he stepped onto his front porch. He was booked into Vanderburgh County Jail, located 160 miles southwest of Indianapolis. He is being held on charges from multiple agencies and is expected to be extradited to Florida, where he faces potential imprisonment for violating probation and thirty-two counts of failing to register as a sex offender. He also faces an Adam Walsh prosecution case in Indiana under federal law aimed at protecting children from exploitation and abuse.
US Marshal William Berger Sr, from the Middle District of Florida, said the arrest showed the persistence of law enforcement. “This arrest exemplifies the tenacity and determination of Deputy US Marshals and our task force partners to bring every fugitive to justice. You can run, you can hide, but law enforcement never stops hunting those who defy it. Justice has a way of catching up to those who run from it.”