WASHINGTON — A twice-convicted sex offender on the run is now back in custody after U.S. Marshals tracked him to a moving train in Utah.
“The U.S. Marshals had been looking for William Hemphill, better known as ‘Andy’ for about three- weeks,” said Christopher Leuer with the office’s Eastern District of Virginia.
Hemphill, 39, was on the run from a federal arrest warrant out of Alexandria when the marshals’ office got the information he was boarding an Amtrak train in Colorado, Leuer said. Hemphill was convicted in 2006 of possessing child pornography and had violated the terms of his release, authorities said.
“This was very rapidly developing,” Leuer said. “We looked at the path of the train and where it was going and where we had offices. And we quickly put a plan in place.”
In Provo, Utah, several undercover task force officers boarded the train and found Hemphill sleeping in a lounge car, apparently traveling alone, Leuer said.
“They waited until the train arrived in Salt Lake City and then as soon as the train stopped they took him into custody at that time,” Leuer said.
Hemphill will go before a judge in Utah before he is eventually transported back to Virginia for prosecution.
