1,000 Sex Offenders Missing In Florida

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:21 pm

1,000 Sex Offenders Missing In Florida

Updated: February 21st, 2007 09:56 AM EDT

More than 1,000 sex offenders are missing across the state, according to a Problem Solvers investigation.

The report aired video of Central Florida's Sex Offender Task Force arresting a sex offender who fled Illinois and settled into a trailer in Orange County, Fla.

Officers from almost every law enforcement agency in the area have been sharing intelligence and keeping tabs on offenders who register. They have also been hunting down offenders who don't register, the report said.

"We need to find these people and not just say, 'Yeah, this guy is gone,'" task force Sgt. Keith Hubbard said.

"But many (offenders) do slip through the cracks," Local 6's Nancy Alvarez said. "Case in point is 73-year-old John McCarthy.

After more than 20 years, the law caught up with McCarthy, who is a convicted sex offender.

In 1978, William Castlen was a detective with the Orlando Police Department and McCarthy was a youth football coach at two YMCA facilities in Orlando.

Police reports showed McCarthy molested a total of five boys on his team during sleepovers at his apartment.

"To me he was a hard-core pedophile," Castlen said. "He was very arrogant and if he got out he would probably molest more children.

"McCarthy did get out of jail," Alvarez said. "He then violated his parole and fled to New York where he assumed a different name. It took two decades for authorities in Florida to catch up to him. Why?"

"The law enforcement man power and resources are not available to track each and every offender," Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman April Glover said.

McCarthy's arrest was part of a yearly sweep done by the FDLE.

"If we can get one sex offender off the list, we believe we are making a difference, Hubbard said.

Orange County tops the list of total sex offenders still missing from the region.

Here is the county-by-county list of missing offenders in Central Florida:

Orange County = 59
Brevard County = 22
Seminole County = 18
Osceola County = 12
Volusia County = 13
Lake County = 8

In Florida, there are about 1,027 offenders who have failed to register.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

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