Convicted Colorado pedophile Richard Carl Heeringa was shocked when U.S. marshals caught up with him living in a basement in Detroit on Saturday, officials said.
“He was trying to disguise his appearance,” supervising Deputy U.S. Marshal Charlie Ahmad said Tuesday while announcing Heeringa’s capture. “He had no indication we were on to him.”
In April 2010, Heeringa disappeared and forfeited his $250,000 bond just before his guilty verdict was announced on 17 counts of sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl in Douglas County.
The 56-year-old also has felony charges pending against him in Jefferson County in the molestation of two girls.
Before moving to Colorado from his native Michigan, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for molesting two girls in that state.
Heeringa preyed on single mothers with daughters, authorities said. He dated the mothers while grooming the girls so he could molest them.
The heinous nature of his crimes and the risk to other children prompted marshals to place him on their 15 Most Wanted list.
“The list is reserved for the worst of the worst,” Ahmad said.
A tipster who saw Heeringa on the “America’s Most Wanted” website turned him in to police in Detroit, who arrested him along with the marshals.
On the site, Heeringa is described as a person who works construction and likes martial arts.
Police said the tipster believed a man living under the name Tim Thurman and working construction in Detroit was Heeringa.
“We had a lot of leads that took us a lot of different places — some leads that took us overseas,” Ahmad said. “There will be a follow-up investigation into who was providing him assistance, and that is what we are looking at. There might be additional charges brought against people.”
Heeringa will be extradited to Colorado for sentencing on his sexual-assault conviction and to face charges in Jefferson County.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
