A Florida creep, who faked his own death to escape arrest and evade police for nearly 16 years, was found living in Indiana, telling law enforcement he hoped to have died before he was captured.
Gary Wayne Howard, 74, was arrested at his Indianapolis-area home Thursday by US Marshals after being on the lam since his staged death in 2010.
Howard made the haunting statement as he was hauled away.
“I had hoped to be dead before you caught up with me,” he reportedly told agents, according to WXIN.
The elderly pervert was branded a sex offender for life in Florida after he was found guilty of 22 counts of child pornography possession in Pinellas County in 2007, according to court records viewed by The Post.
Three years later, Howard violated his probation and escaped the Sunshine State for Indiana.
Howard is believed to have abandoned an Enterprise rental car near Mauzy Lake in Morganfield, KY, making it appear he killed himself, officials said.
Officials called the scheme a “deliberate attempt by Howard to stage his own death to appear as a suicide.”
An arrest warrant for Howard was issued out of Pinellas County in March 2011, when he failed to register as a sex offender.
The order stated the 5-foot-5, 250-pound fugitive should be brought safely to court in Clearwater, Florida, to face his charges, court records showed.
Detectives discovered Howard had a “significant number of relatives” living in Indiana that he could “depend on to help him stay off the grid.”
Surveillance of the area spotted Howard living in a home in the Irvington neighborhood. US Marshal agents arrested Howard as he stepped out onto his front porch on Thursday.
Howard was booked in Vanderburgh County Jail, 160 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
He is being held on charges from other agencies, and is expected to be extradicted to Florida where he will face possible imprisonment for violation of probation and 32 charges for failure to register as a sex offender.
Howard is also facing an “Adam Walsh prosecution case” in Indiana, a federal law aimed at protecting children from sexual exploitation and violent crime, to prevent child abuse and child pornography, to promote Internet safety.
“This arrest exemplifies the tenacity and determination of Deputy US Marshals and our task force partners to bring every fugitive to Justice,” said William Berger Sr., US Marshal for the Middle District of Florida.
“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,” Berger said.
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