A violent criminal who had been convicted of rape and was on the run was found dead in San Diego, police say.
Merle Wakefield, 69, was being supervised on California's conditional release program when officials got a tamper notice from his monitoring device on Sept. 25.
'As long as the state keeps releasing sexually violent predators into our neighborhoods, families are one tampered ankle monitor away from this. These people don't belong anywhere near our communities.'
When the officials arrived at his workplace in Rancho Bernardo, they found the GPS device, but Wakefield was gone.
Nearly a month later on Monday at about 9:30 a.m., San Diego police responded to a report of a dead body and found human remains in a riverbed in San Diego.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office identified the remains as Merle Wakefield. His cause and manner of death will be determined by an autopsy.
The rapist's remains were found about 20 miles south of the location where he was last seen.
Wakefield had been convicted of rape as well as lewd acts with a minor under 14, along with eight other convictions and 20 arrests.
He was granted conditional release in Nov. 2024.
It's unclear how Wakefield died.
San Diego police said they are continuing to investigate the man's death.
RELATED: California man allegedly coerced 21 children to produce sex videos via online apps, FBI says
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond criticized the state of California after Wakefield vanished.
"The unfortunate reality is that what happened with Merle Wakefield could have happened at any time," Demond said.
"As long as the state keeps releasing sexually violent predators into our neighborhoods, families are one tampered ankle monitor away from this. These people don't belong anywhere near our communities. They belong locked up in a secure state facility. Period."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!