Sex offender goes unregistered

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A man convicted of molesting young boys in Maine has been living in New Mexico for 20 years under the radar and unregistered.

In 1984 David Meilstrup, who at that time worked as a boy’s choir leader, pled guilty in Maine to sexually abusing four boys. Another victim contacted KRQE News 13 and said he was also abused by Meilstrup and wanted to know why he wasn't on the sex offender registry.

“It's a face I will never forget,” the victim, who is not being identified, told News 13. “Nine, nine years old, he was my, the head councilor of my bunk.”

The man says he's still working through what happened to him, and that's when he started looking into what happened to Meilstrup.

After pleading guilty in Maine Meilstrup served three years in prison and three more on probation. But he never registered as a sex offender in Maine like the state says he was supposed to. Instead he moved to Santa Fe, where’s he’s lived ever since.

“Since he left Maine, he has not reported back to the state of Maine which he is supposed to,” the man said.

Officials who run the Maine sex offender registry listed him as an absconder, saying he is required to register for life. Meilstrup never registered in New Mexico either.

Meilstrup’s wife contacted KRQE News 13 Thursday and said her husband always followed the rules, was remorseful and claimed he had no idea he had to register in Maine. She went on to say that they were never contacted by Maine authorities about his not registering.

Maine’s sex offender registry says they had no idea where Meilstrup was because he disappeared; in fact his file was in their dead or unknown file box.

Meilstrup's wife claims they didn’t register in New Mexico because they didn’t think they had to.

Years after the Meilstrups moved to Santa Fe, the New Mexico legislature decided that some offenders who committed crimes before 1995 did not have to register.

Meilstrup’s wife says her husband will call Maine Friday and register. News 13 checked and Meilstrup did contact Maine's sex offender registry Friday morning, and is in the process of registering.

Although he still won’t have to register in New Mexico, but police now know who he is and where he lives.

There is no statute of limitations for child rape in Maine which means Meilstrup could still be charged for what he's accused of doing to the man interviewed by KRQE News 13.