An Oklahoma sex offender on the state's “10 Most Wanted” list has been arrested in New York 13 years after faking his disappearance, officials say.
Anthony Lennon has been wanted on eight counts of possession of child pornography since March 2012. At the time, Moore Police Department detectives were called to a local Super 8 Motel, where Lennon had worked, and found a suspicious crime scene, the Marshals Service said in a recent news release.
“Another employee noticed a pool of blood, Lennon’s shoe, bloody shoe prints, shirt buttons, and money missing from the hotel money drawer,” federal authorities said.
Lennon, who was working toward a doctorate degree in computer science at the time of his disappearance, was accused of “leaving behind falsified evidence to make it appear he had been abducted,” the Marshals Service said.
The day before he vanished, he emptied his bank account, claiming to the bank teller that he was in legal trouble, according to authorities.
During the Moore Police Department’s investigation into Lennon, they found “chat logs, a desktop computer, and stacks of compact discs containing images of children and infants being violently raped and sexually assaulted,” federal authorities said.
At the time of his disappearance, Lennon was facing 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of aggravated possession of child pornography in 2008.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a separate news release, “In that case, a friend using Lennon's computer discovered about 50 gigabytes of images of graphic child pornography.”
After more than a decade on the run, federal and local authorities were able to find Lennon and interview him in New York under the alias Justin Phillips.
The Marshals Service said Lennon’s ”true identity was confirmed through fingerprint analysis.”
Drummond said Lennon was captured in upstate New York on Thursday.
It's unclear whether Lennon has obtained an attorney yet.
Lennon was added to Drummond’s “10 Most Wanted” program in July. The program began in September 2024.
“This man is accused of committing a terrible crime involving children and this arrest illustrates the professionalism, communication, and teamwork of all the various agencies involved in the arrest and to provide justice for the victims,” Marshal Johnny L. Kuhlman said in a statement.
The Moore Police Department said in a Facebook post, “This case remains active and under investigation, but with his capture, we can now begin the process of holding Lennon accountable for the crimes he committed against children in our community.”
“I appreciate the thorough investigative work by the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Moore Police Department and all of the law enforcement agencies involved in locating and apprehending this child predator,” Drummond said in a statement. “He evaded justice for far too long but will now face the consequences of his actions.”
