Security video captured the moment a convicted pedophile serving a 30-year sentence calmly walked out of a hospital to escape custody in St. Louis, Missouri.
Tommy Wayne Boyd, 45, was receiving treatment at Mercy Hospital South when he simply walked out on Thursday at about 4 a.m.
Law enforcement officials responded with a massive manhunt involving officers from multiple states and agencies.
Boyd was convicted of first-degree statutory sodomy after he sexually assaulted an 11-year-old boy in October 1996 when Boyd was 18 years old. He served 10 years in prison but was later convicted for enticement of a child in 2007, when he received the 30-year prison sentence.
He had been imprisoned at Potosi Correctional Center before he escaped from the hospital.
While officers were investigating leads, they were able to locate Boyd in a suburb of St. Louis about seven miles away from the hospital. He was taken into custody Thursday evening without incident.
Boyd reportedly laughed about escaping and said that he walked out after one of his guards went to the bathroom and the other fell asleep. Police sources told KSDK-TV that he said he lifted keys from the sleeping guard, unlocked his handcuffs, and even stole the guard’s jacket.
Police said they were tipped off by a man who said he gave Boyd a ride and later realized he was wanted by the police.
“He was just trying to be a nice person and give somebody a ride who needed one,” said St. Louis County police Sgt. Tracy Panus. “And unfortunately, it was this guy.”
He also ate a hot dog at a park where a woman said she called police, but they missed him by only about 10 minutes.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said that the two people who were supposed to guard Boyd were no longer employed at the department.
Officials had cautioned parents to pick up their kids from school and not to let them walk around before Boyd was captured on Thursday.
Here’s the video of the security footage:
Convicted Pedophile Calmly Escapes from Hospital, Leading to All-Out Manhunt in Missouriwww.youtube.com
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