KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Colorado Bureau of Investigation says the man who was ranked number eight on its “most wanted fugitive sex offenders” list has been arrested.
Pete Custer was arrested Thursday morning in Morristown, Tennessee, which is northeast of Knoxville. He had been on the run since February 2017.
Custer was convicted in Los Angeles County, California in 1991 of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under the age of 14.
“Custer was in and out of prison for a number of years in California, and later fled to Colorado where he was arrested and imprisoned on additional charges. Upon his release from prison in Colorado, he fled his term of parole and was on the run again until his arrest today in Tennessee,” the CBI said in a statement released Thursday.
The bureau said U.S. Marshals is Colorado began searching for Custer earlier this month and coordinated with the CBI.
Investigators were led to Key West, Florida and then to Morristown, where he was working at a grocery store.
Custer now faces charges of failure to register as a sex offender in Tennessee in addition to the charges he already faces in California and Colorado.
The CBI said a number of local Tennessee agencies assisted in tracking down and arresting Custer.