Fugitive sex offender Merle Wakefield found dead in San Diego

Authorities have located the body of Merle Wakefield, a 69-year-old convicted child sex offender and rapist, in a San Diego riverbed. Wakefield had been a fugitive since late September after his GPS monitoring device was tampered with while he was working at an Amazon warehouse in Rancho Bernardo.

Wakefield, who had prior convictions for rape and lewd acts with a minor, was participating in a conditional release program supervised by Liberty Healthcare. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office reported that his device entered “tamper mode” at approximately 3:30 a.m. on September 25, at which point he disappeared from his workplace.

His remains were discovered near the 4800 block of Fairmount Avenue at Montezuma Road, roughly 20 miles south of where he was last seen. The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the remains, but the cause and manner of death are pending an autopsy. San Diego police are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.