Sex offender who faked his death to evade police for 16 years made chilling admission

A sex offender who faked his own death to avoid being arrested has finally been caught after 16 years.

Florida man Gary Wayne Howard was arrested on Thursday (13 November) at his home, according to Fox59, having escaped from his probation back in 2010.

In his home state, he had been convicted of 22 counts of possessing child pornography in 2007, but three years later, he dropped off law enforcement's radar.

Officials believe he hired a car from Enterprise and abandoned it near a lake in Kentucky, making it a 'deliberate attempt by Howard to stage his own death to appear as a suicide'.

However, he was caught years later after investigators discovered he had a 'significant number' of relatives living around Indianapolis who could 'help him stay off the grid'.

Law enforcement lost track of Gary Wayne Howard for 16 years, but eventually tracked him down (Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office)

An investigation found that the sex offender was staying in Irvington, with surveillance footage showing that the man they'd thought dead was still alive over a decade later.

Officers confronted Howard on his doorstep earlier this week, and he told them: "I had hoped to be dead before you caught up with me."

Despite his stated hope, he is very much alive and faces a charge of violating his probation as well as 32 charges of failing to register as a sex offender.

William Berger Sr, US Marshal for the Middle District of Florida, said: "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."

He's been arrested and taken to Vanderburgh County Jail after an investigation found him alive (Google Maps)

Howard's attempt at faking his death clearly didn't work in the end, and he's not the only criminal to attempt such a stunt.

A woman trying to avoid a driving conviction faked her death after police called her up to discuss the matter with her, and she pretended to be her sister.

Zoe Bernard had been banned from driving when she was arrested in November 2020 for careless driving and failing to stop, so when the law came calling, she pretended to be her sister Shanice and told officers that Zoe was unwell.

She later pretended, in the guise of her sister, that she had died, with her applying for a death certificate in her own name to maintain the ruse.

When she appeared in court, she was sentenced to eight months in prison.