Convicted child sex offender Tommy W. Boyd escapes St. Louis hospital on FOOT
Convicted child molester Tommy W. Boyd escapes from St. Louis hospital on foot
A child molester walked out of a St. Louis-area hospital, sparking a massive manhunt as area schools went into lockdown.
The brazen suspect even posed for a selfie after escaping from police.
Tommy W. Boyd, 45, fled Mercy Hospital South, in St. Louis County, around 4 a.m. Thursday, and now police are asking for help finding him.
He was supposed to be under the supervision of two police officers after being taken to hospital from prison, but walked out under his own power. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, police were not notified of his escape for nearly 30 minutes.
It is unclear who was watching him when he escaped.
He was last seen by hospital staff around 3:45 am.
Tommy W. Boyd, 45, fled from Mercy Hospital South, in St. Louis County, around 4 a.m. Thursday, and now police are asking for help finding him
The brazen suspect even posed for a selfie after escaping from police
The white man with bald hair and beard was described as 6 feet tall and weighing 154 pounds.
District police released a selfie Boyd took after the escape on Thursday around 1 p.m. A woman with Boyd may have posted it on social media, District Police Sergeant Tracy Panus said.
In the selfie, he appeared to be wearing the same clothes as when he escaped.
His escape sent Lindbergh schools into Lockdown and kept students inside as police hunted for the child molester.
Lindbergh’s Kennerly Elementary School is across the street from the hospital, and two other schools are within a mile.
As a precaution, all hospital buildings were checked.
Boyd was convicted of a sex crime in 1996 when he was just 18. He pleaded guilty to first-degree sodomy on an 11-year-old boy and was sentenced to ten years in prison in 1997.
Shortly after he was released from prison in 2007, he tried to pull down a boy’s shorts and threatened to throw him into the creek if he refused.
He approached a nine-year-old boy on a sidewalk in Greene County, Missouri, as the boy walked to a friend’s house on May 29, 2007.
“Boo. Did I scare you?’ He came close to the boy from behind and said.
He asked the boy about the bike trails in the area and offered four quarters if the boy would take him to the trails. The boy refused at first, but eventually took the money after Boyd insisted.
When they got to the bike paths, Boyd showed the boy about $2 and offered the boy another way to make money.
He described in detail the sexual contact he wanted and tried to pull down the boy’s shorts.
Fortunately, the nine-year-old was able to break free. The sex offender shouted, “Be a good boy,” as the child ran away.
A jury convicted him of enticing a child and sentenced him to 30 years in prison at the Potosi Correctional Center.
He was taken to the hospital from jail on Wednesday with an undisclosed medical illness.