Los Angeles

Registered Sex Offender Who Fled is Caught in Arizona

The manhunt for a convicted sex offender ended Wednesday when authorities arrested 34-year-old Joseph Townsend after a tip led authorities to hundreds of child pornography images on his phone.

Authorities tracked him down in Bullhead City, Arizona.

Before he cut off his ankle bracelet last week and left Lake Los Angeles, Townsend lived in a trailer park, on a dusty road, deep in the Antelope Valley.

"I've seen him walk through the town," said Anibal Enriquez. "People talk about him."

Townsend registered as a sex offender in 2003.

On Friday, a state parole agent visited Townsend's home and took his cellphone after receiving a tip that it contained child pornography.

Townsend then vanished and was apprehended 230 miles from Lake Los Angeles.

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The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department has been analyzing his phone.

"In 11 years, this is probably one of the most egregious collection of images that I've ever seen," said Sgt. Brian Hudson, of the Sheriff's Department's special victims bureau.

Hudson said there are hundreds of explicit images of boys and girls, under 10, on the phone.

"These images may be fresh images, where we may have a live victim out there being molested," he said.

Misty Vivirito said her mother lives next door to Townsend and saw law enforcement searching his trailer on Friday. She said Townsend has approached her 12-year-old daughter in the past.

"He was like, 'Hi,' and my mom was like, 'ugh, hi' and he said, 'hi, little girl' and was trying to talk to my daughter and said she had pretty eyes and my mom put her on the other side and said that was creepy," she said.  "And my mom didn't know he was a registered sex offender or anything."

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