By Steve Neavling

For 16 years, Frederick Cecil McLean had evaded capture while on the U.S. Marshals Service’ Most Wanted List. 

Then a resident in a small South Carolina town checked on her elderly neighbor earlier this month and discovered his decomposing body inside his home. 

That neighbor was McLean, who was wanted on child molestation charges in San Diego County. He was living under an alias. 

“The discovery of Frederick McLean’s body marks an end to the manhunt, but the investigation continues,” U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis said in a statement. “I want to personally thank the men and women of the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and the Oconee County Coroner’s Office who dedicated hundreds of man hours helping the Marshals identify the body and gather evidence allowing us to gain a better picture of McLean’s life as a fugitive.

During an autopsy on Nov. 15, the fingerprints on the body matched McLean’s. 

No foul play was suspected in his death. 

McLean, 70, was wanted on multiple counts of sexual assault on child and was considered a high risk for sexually assaulting young girls. One of the victims alleged McLean assaulted her more than 100 times over a seven-year period beginning when she was 5 years old.

“We wish McLean’s fate had been determined by a court of law 15 years ago,” U.S. Marshal Steve Stafford of the Southern District of California said. “The investigators working on this case never gave up. We hope McLean’s death brings some sense of closure for the victims and their families, especially knowing he can never hurt another child.”

By Steve Neavling

A 37-year-old Arizona man wanted in connection with the 2016 murder of his girlfriend has been added to the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted List, the agency announced Monday.

Raymond “RJ” McLeod is the first fugitive to debut on the list with a $15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. 

McLeod is wanted by the San Diego Police Department for the murder of 30-year-old Krystal Mitchell. 

Authorities believe he fled the country and may be hiding out in Mexico or Central America. He was last spotted in Belize in 2018 and Guatemala in 2017. 

“McLeod poses a significant threat to the public and must be brought to justice,” U.S. Marshal Service Director Donald Washington said in a statement. 

The San Diego District Attorney’s Office charged McLeod with murder after Mitchell was found dead in June 2016 at an apartment in San Diego, where the couple was visiting friends. McLeod was the last known person to see Mitchell alive, authorities said. 

“The passage of time will never deter the Marshals’ fugitive investigation for McLeod,” U.S. Marshal Steve Stafford of the Southern District of California said. “If anything, it fuels our determination. We will leave no stone unturned until he is brought to justice.”

McLeod is 5 feet 11 inches tall and has brown hair and hazel eyes. At the time he fled, McLeod weighed 245 pounds and had “a tattooed muscular physique.”

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

One of the U.S.’s most-wanted terrorists was killed as Philippine forces advanced quickly to defeat pro-ISIS militants who took over Marawi City.

Isnilon Hapilon, who is listed among the FBI’s most-wanted terror suspects, was killed in a gun battle, and their bodies were discovered Monday in Marawi, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

According to Philippine officials, about 30 pro-ISIS militants were still in the area.

Troops rescued a hostage, who provided critical information to help find Hapilon. American officials said Hapilon was responsible the ransom kidnappings of several Americans.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The father of the gunman who opened fire at a music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night, killing at least 59 people, was a notorious bank robber who escaped from a Texas prison in 1968 and was the subject of a massive manhunt.

Stephen Paddock’s father, Benjamin Hoskins, was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and described as “psychopathic” and “armed and dangerous,” the New York Times reports. 

Federal authorities finally tracked down Hoskins in 1978.

Hoskins was originally sentenced to 20 years in prison for bank robberies. At the time, Stephen Paddock was only 8 years old.

Friends and family said the father and son didn’t have a close relations.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

William Claybourne Taylor had been on the run since 1977, when he was accused of fatally shooting a former immigration official in Florida.

Taylor, 67, who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, was arrested Thursday in Reidsville, North Carolina, the Associated Press reports.

Taylor also is accused of trying to shoot the former mayor of a small Florida town. That’s when he also fatally shot a former official with the Immigration and Nationalization Service.

In May 1980, Taylor was indicted on charges of murder and aggravated battery. He disappeared soon after.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI has added two men suspected in brutal murders to the bureau’s most wanted list on Thursday.

One is Luis Macedo, a gang leader on the run from a first-degree murder after 15-year-old Alex Arellano was beaten with bats, shot and set on fire for not showing a gang sign, NBC News reports.

Authorities believe he has fled to Florida or Mexico.

The second fugitive is Philip Patrick Policarpio, who is charged with murdering his pregnant girlfriend in Los Angeles on April 12.

Policarpio is accused of killing Lauren Olguin, who was 17 weeks pregnant.

“His pattern is one of violence, and he is always armed. He is the definition of a continuing threat to the community,” FBI Special Agent Scott Garriola said in a statement.

The FBI is offering up to $100,000 for information that leads to either fugitive’s arrest.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A Mexican drug cartel founder who was on the DEA’s Most Wanted List was found tortured and dead along with three other men dumped along the side of the road, The Daily Mail reports.

Carlos Rosales Mendoza, who founded La Familia Michoacana, was found riddled with bullets.

Mendoza was a key member of the La Familia cartel.

According to authorities, Mendoza was trying to start a new cartel when he died.

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