Authorities believe a convicted child sex offender cut off his GPS monitor before fleeing his work program at an Amazon warehouse in San Diego last month, prompting a manhunt.
Now, the missing man has been found dead in a San Diego riverbed, officials with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Tuesday.
Merle Wakefield, 69, was convicted in 1980 and 1991 of lewd acts with a child under 14 years old and rape by force.
He had been on a conditional release program, but still under tight restrictions, since the fall of 2024, supervised by the company Liberty Healthcare. He was eventually allowed to work a job at Amazon, the San Diego Union Tribune reported.
At 3:30 a.m. Sept. 25, Wakefield’s GPS device alerted to “tamper mode” while he was working at the Amazon facility in the community of Rancho Bernardo, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Liberty Healthcare responded to the scene and discovered Wakefield’s GPS device had been removed and he had disappeared from the location, at which point the company alerted authorities, sheriff’s officials said.
His body was found near the 4800 block of Fairmount Avenue at Montezuma Road. The Sheriff’s Office said that, because of the still-active investigation into Wakefield’s death, it could not release any further information.
The California Department of State Hospitals contracts with Liberty Healthcare to supervise people convicted of specific crimes and who also struggle with significant mental health conditions. Those designated as “sexually violent predators” by the state can be committed for an indefinite period to a state hospital by a county superior court.
If a court determines the individual qualifies for treatment in a less restrictive environment, they can be placed in the community under treatment and supervision by a contractor.
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