Fugitiveโ Sex Offender Captured in Canton After 13 Years on the โRun
CANTON, New โYork (WWNY) – โฃAnthony Lennon, a convicted sex offender andโฃ former member of Oklahoma‘sโ Ten Moast Wanted Fugitives list, was apprehended last Thursday in the parking lot of the Canton Price Chopper. Lennon had been living in the communityโฃ under the aliasโ justin Phillips โfor an unknown period.
Lennon wasโฃ originally convicted of aggravated child pornography in 2008. In 2012, while โwanted on multiple counts of possessing child pornography, he staged his own death at a โmotel where he worked and fled, remaining a fugitive for 13 years.
The breakโข in the caseโฃ came last week when the U.S. Marshal’s office received a tip. “I’m notโข goingโ to divulge where that data came from or what it was, but that led us to send a couple of deputy โU.S. Marshals to upstate New York,” explained Johnny Kuhlman, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Oklahoma.
prior to his capture, Lennon had established a life in Canton, working the front desk at โขthe Holiday Inn Express and enrolling in theโ engineering science programme at SUNY Canton in 2024.
“Many, many individual deputy U.S. Marshals worked on this case for various sightings, various leads, made tripsโค to Nevada, Texas, โขand Tennessee chasing leads on him,” Kuhlman stated.
Authoritiesโข confirmed lennon’s identity throughโฃ fingerprinting. The New York State Police are currently leading the local inquiry and are analyzing โคevidence recovered from Lennon’s Canton areaโฃ home.
“We knowโ what his past is like, but โฃwe have no ideaโ what he may have doneโข over the last 13 years,” Kuhlman โsaid. He is urging anyone whoโ knew Lennon, or believes they might potentially beโข a victim,โ to contactโ either the U.S. Marshalsโ or the New York State Police.
Canton Mayor Michael Dalton commented onโ the situation,stating,”People have had contact wiht him in our community. There’s no doubt he’s been here โฃfor โคwhatever length of time. There are people in our community at times that areโ questionable, and that’s what good police work does: find thes โthings.”
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