Fugitive Sex Offender Arrested After 16 Years

Gary Wayne Howard, a 74-year-old convicted sex offender from Florida, was arrested by U.S. Marshals at his home in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Thursday after nearly 16 years on the run following a staged suicide in 2010.

Howard, who had been living under assumed names, was taken into custody on his front porch in the Irvington neighborhood. As officers handcuffed him, he told them, "I had hoped to be dead before you caught up with me," according to officials. He was booked into Vanderburgh County Jail and is being held pending extradition to Florida, where he faces charges for violating probation and 32 counts of failing to register as a sex offender.

The arrest stems from Howard's 2007 conviction in Pinellas County, Florida, on 22 counts of possessing illegal child sexual abuse material. The court sentenced him to probation and required lifelong registration as a sex offender, a mandate he repeatedly ignored after his release. In 2010, shortly after violating the terms of his probation, Howard disappeared. Authorities believe he rented a car under his name and abandoned it near Mauzy Lake in Morganfield, Kentucky, to simulate a drowning. Officials described the incident as a...