The U.S. Marshals Service is please to announce
that Washington State fugitive, and Level
III Sex Offender, David J. Torrence, self-surrendered earlier today in
Camden, Arkansas. On April 23, 2008,
convicted rapist and Level III Sex Offender David J. Torrence absconded
from Washington State Department of Corrections supervision and became a
fugitive. Torrence, a man with a history of Failing to Register as a Sex
Offender, decided that 3 days of supervision was enough and fled after being
released from prison on April 20, 2008. Torrence had been serving a sentence
for a previous Failure to Register conviction. Upon his release from prison,
Torrence was fitted with a GPS device and was living under an overpass in
Snohomish County. Torrence removed the GPS device before fleeing the area.
Torrence was required to register as a Sex Offender after being convicted of
Rape in 1995. In that case, Torrence abducted and raped a young girl in
Everett, WA.
The Washington State Department of
Corrections immediately issued an escape warrant for
Torrence’s arrest and requested assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service
sponsored Pacific
Northwest Fugitive Apprehension Task Force (PNWFAT) in locating and
apprehending Torrence.
PNWFAT investigators quickly developed information, with the help of
multiple law enforcement
agencies that Torrence may have fled to a family residence in Arkansas. A
collateral lead was sent to the U.S. Marshals Service office in El Dorado,
Arkansas and deputy U.S. Marshals immediately began to search for, locate
and apprehend Torrence.
This morning Deputy U.S. Marshals and local
law enforcement officers developed information that Torrence was aware he
was being sought in Stephens and was planning to flee to another location.
Instead of continuing to run, Torrence was apparently convinced by family
members that he would never be able to escape and instead Torrence made the
determination to self-surrender to the Sheriff’s Office in Ouchita County,
Arkansas.
Torrence will be extradited back to
Washington State on the Department of Corrections
warrant, and faces potential federal charges of Failure to Register as a Sex
Offender under the
recently passed Adam Walsh Act. “The self-surrender of Mr. Torrence
demonstrates the continued dedication of all local, state and federal law
enforcement agencies in making sure that dangerous sexual predators, and
those who flaunt our sexual registration laws, will be taken off the
streets,’’ said new U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Washington W.J.
Hawe. “The U.S. Marshals Service and the entire national law enforcement
community are united to ensure that these types of criminals are apprehended
and made to answer for their crimes,” Hawe added.
The PNWFAT is a U.S. Marshals-sponsored
partnership comprised of investigators from the
King County Sheriff's Office, Seattle Police Department, Social Security
Administration Office of
the Inspector General, Washington State Department of Corrections and the
U.S. Marshals Service. The Task Force is supported by the Project Safe
Neighborhoods Initiative and was formed to concentrate apprehension efforts
to remove federal, state and local fugitives from the streets. The Task
Force objective is to disrupt illegal gang, gun and drug activity in the
Pacific Northwest and to reduce the amount of violence in the region.
For additional information on other major
case fugitives, go to the U.S. Marshals Service’s
website at www.usmarshals.gov or
U.S. Marshal’s Western Washington website at
www.usmarshals.gov/district/wa-w. For additional information on the
Project Safe Neighborhoods
(PSN) Initiative, go to the PSN website at
www.psn.gov. |