Sex offenders slip monitors and vanish

ROSWELL, N.M. (KRQE) - It's happened again, another registered sex offender has cut off his tracking device and disappeared.

That's twice in a month.  In one case, the man cut off his GPS tracking belt and threw it into the parking lot at his probation office.

Now the manhunt is on for Christopher Young, 42, convicted years ago in California for lewd and lascivious conduct with a child by force.

Young has been reporting as a sex offender in Roswell since 2008, but on June 29, his parole officer was notified Young had cut his GPS belt tracking device and thrown it over the parole office fence.

"We certainly knew where he was working, and we've checked with them, and they haven't seen him since the 29th either and had been trying to get a hold of him," Chaves County sheriff's Lt. Britt Snyder said. "None of his phones work.  It appears they've been cut off or turned off."

The Chaves County Sheriff's Department, like other sheriff's departments around the state, keeps track of registered sex offenders in their jurisdictions.

On Monday, convicted rapist Donnie Lopez called his probation officer in Carlsbad to meet but never showed. He cut off off his ankle monitor, and his GPS device was found in his bedroom.

Still, law enforcement said their monitors are durable.

"They're built very sturdy, and they're made to wear continually," Snyder said.  "You can take a shower wearing the thing, that's how tough that they're built.

But the strap still can be cut, he added.

Adult Probation and Parole officials said the GPS monitors can be cut, though not easily. But, in both cases they said the device worked, and immediately notified each parole officer the monitor had been tampered with.

Deputies in Chaves County said Young was on probation for nonviolent crimes he'd committed in Roswell coupled with the sex offense. Authorities said he is considered potentially dangerous to children.

"We have a warrant for him, adult probation has got a warrant for him, and any law enforcement agency not only in New Mexico, but other states can find the fact that there's warrants for him and detain him on those warrants," Snyder said.

Young was last seen driving a maroon 1996 GMC Yuko, with a New Mexico license plate of MGW 298. Authorities believe he may have fled the state.

As for Lopez, he's also still on the loose and has been out of prison less than two months.