Police have been unable to locate Timothy Busfield after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The former West Wing actor - who is married to Melissa Gilbert - is under investigation over allegations of child sexual abuse, and now the US Marshals Service has stepped in to help find the 68-year-old star, the Alburquerque Police Department (APD) have confirmed to People magazine.
Asked by the outlet if Busfield has been located, detained or arrested at this point, the APD spokesperson replied: "Not that I am aware."
The actor-and-director is wanted on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse after it was alleged he engaged in unlawful sexual conduct with two 11-year-old siblings.
An investigation opened on 1 November, 2024, after a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) alerted police, and the victims' parents told officer Marvin Kirk Brown, who issued the arrest warrant, that the children had met the 68-year-old star on the set of The Cleaning Lady, where Busfield was a director.
The children's parents claimed Busfield "grew closer to the boys" when he joined the FOX series, which ran from January 2022 until June last year.
The warrant stated: “It was reported that Timothy would tell his children to call him ‘Uncle Tim.' "
The parents told police that "they both discovered that there were allegations against Timothy of sexual assault against both women and minors.”
After the father was told “there had been multiple rumours that Timothy had been ‘handsy’ with women,” the siblings' mother quizzed her sons as to whether anyone had ever touched them in a manner that made them feel uncomfortable."
The warrant continued: "The children allegedly responded by asking, ‘You mean like Uncle Tim?’ "
An attorney advised the couple to take the children to UNMH, where professionals suggested the boys had been "groomed", and while they hadn't disclosed any sexual contact at that time, both claimed Busfield “would tickle them on the stomach and legs.”
It was determined at that time that the case didn't meet their acceptance criteria, but on 3 October, 2025, the mother filed a police report and told Child Protective Services “her children both disclosed that there was sexual abuse by Timothy from around November 2022 to Spring 2024."
However, the warrant stated she was told that because physical abuse had not occurred, nothing could be done.
Busfield allegedly told police the parents were upset their sons had been replaced by a younger actor and shortly afterwards, he received a call informing him Warner Bros. were investigating a complaint.
He also claimed an actress on the show that the mother "wanted revenge".
Asked by cops if he had ever picked up or tickled the boys, Busfield allegedly admitted it was “highly likely that he would have” because he wanted “a playful environment.”
He added of touching on set: "It's not allowed at all.
“There is no, there's no protocol. I mean, I'm always around people, right? It would be, you know, in front of the parents.”
Throughout the investigation, a production assistant alleged SL would be unsupervised and his teacher on set wouldn't keep track of him, notably leading to an incident where he rode a skateboard through a live set.
The investigating officer wrote in the warrant: “I believe Timothy had the opportunity to be alone with SL while he was lying in the bed on the TV set...
“In my training and experience, paedophiles often infiltrate families under a trusted role, like Timothy, who, as a producer, exploited the hectic film sets to tickle and touch SL on his penis and buttocks, masking it as play.
“He would invite the family to off-set gatherings, with his wife buying Christmas gifts to foster closeness, making SL feel special and dependent— classic grooming to erode boundaries, isolate the victim, and silence suspicions by blending abuse into normalcy.
“This dual tactic, charming parents while secretly violating the child, builds a web of complicity that is hard to unravel, delaying detection, as families trust the abuser's facade.”
