Minnesota sex offender escapes treatment center after strapping GPS tracker to dummy
A Minnesota man escaped a treatment center for sex offenders after strapping his GPS ankle monitor to a dummy, authorities said.
Steven Loren Edwards, 53, is facing one count of escaping custody while in a Minnesota sex offender program and another count of escaping from custody under the supervision of a mental health treatment program, according to a criminal complaint obtained by USA TODAY.
Police wrote in court documents that Edwards escaped from the Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program in Saint Peter, Minnesota, about 75 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
An attorney who previously represented Edwards told USA TODAY that he was unable to speak on his behalf.
Here's what else we know so far about the case.
The Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program is a secure treatment facility that supervises people who have been deemed sexually dangerous or those who have a 'sexual psychopathic personality,' police wrote in court documents.
Someone from the program contacted the Saint Peter Police Department on May 17 and said that Edwards was missing, police said. He had been committed to the Department of Human Services as part of the sex offender program since October 2011, when court records show him as being considered "sexually dangerous."
Police said that program staff went to Edwards' room around 7 p.m. on May 17. Edwards' roommate said that they should check on him because he'd been 'lying in his bed and had not moved for quite some time.'
That's when staff found a dummy with Edwards' GPS ankle monitor attached to it, court documents show. Staff looked at surveillance footage and saw that Edwards had left the facility without permission at 6:53 p.m. the day before, on May 16.
Someone from the Office of Special Investigations, housed in the Minnesota Department of Human Services, contacted police and said Edwards called his son at 10 p.m. the night he left the facility. The office was able to connect Edwards to a phone number for someone named James Spiess, per court documents.
Once police spoke to Spiess, they found out he had been at a laundromat on May 16 when he met Edwards, according to court documents. Edwards told him he was kicked out of his home and needed to get to the city of Albert Lea, about 70 miles southeast of Saint Peter.
Spiess said he'd take Edwards there, though the two stopped at a casino in Iowa before arriving in Albert Lea, court documents show. Once there, Speiss got Edwards a hotel room, left him there and drove back to Saint Peter, he told police.
While investigating, Saint Peter police found out Edwards bought a car while in Albert Lea. On May 18, two days after he escaped the facility in Saint Peter, Edwards' car was seen in Webb City, Missouri, where his mother lived, court documents show.
Police in Saint Peter alerted the public to Edwards and his car, a 2004 silver Dodge Stratus, asking them to be on the lookout.
Webb City officers went to check on Edwards' mother and found the Stratus outside her home, over 500 miles away from the facility he escaped, court documents show.
Webb City officers found Edwards inside the home and arrested him. As of May 22, Edwards was still in Missouri, and Minnesota authorities plan to pick him up the week of May 26, Nicollet County Attorney Michelle Zehnder Fischer confirmed to USA TODAY.
Court records show a number of prior convictions for Edwards, including assault, fleeing police and in 1991, escape from custody.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man straps GPS tracker on dummy, escapes St. Peter sex offender center
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