‘Demented’ Criminal Fakes Death to Evade Police for 16 Years

After 16 years of pretending to be dead, a Florida sex offender has finally been caught — and what he told police as they arrested him will send chills down your spine.

Gary Wayne Howard, 74, was arrested Thursday at his home near Indianapolis after faking his death in 2010 to dodge Florida authorities. When U.S. Marshals finally cornered him, the elderly fugitive reportedly muttered, “I had hoped to be dead before you caught up with me.”

Back in 2007, Howard was convicted on 22 counts of possessing child pornography in Pinellas County and ordered to register as a sex offender for life. But three years later, he ditched Florida — abandoning a rental car by a lake in Kentucky to make it look like he’d killed himself — and vanished.

Authorities say Howard’s “suicide” was an elaborate hoax designed to throw investigators off his trail. For years, he lived quietly in Indiana, relying on relatives to help him stay under the radar. But this week, U.S. Marshals spotted him stepping onto his front porch in the Irvington neighborhood — and ended his run for good.

“This arrest exemplifies the tenacity and determination of Deputy U.S. Marshals,” said William Berger Sr., U.S. Marshal for the Middle District of Florida. “You can run, you can hide, but justice always catches up.”

Howard is now behind bars in Vanderburgh County Jail, awaiting extradition to Florida to face a long list of charges — including probation violation, failure to register as a sex offender, and potential federal charges under the Adam Walsh Act.

After more than a decade of lies, even Howard himself seemed to know the truth: you can fake your death, but you can’t escape justice forever.