Washington sex offender who cut off his GPS tracking device turns himself in to police in Arkansas

A registered sex offender who lived under a bridge in Snohomish County for three days before cutting off his state issued GPS tracking ankle bracelet and disappearing has turned himself in to police in to police in Camden, Arkansas, according to the US Marshals Service.

David Torrence, a Level 3 offender, had been released from prison on April 20 after serving a one-year sentence for failing to register as a sex offender.

DOC officials were unable to find adequate housing for the 43-year-old offender so he was fitted with the tracking device, given a sleeping bag and permitted to live beneath a bridge in Snohomish.

His ankle bracelet was found on April 24 at an apartment complex near Lynnwood, Snohomish County sheriff's deputies said.

After his escape, DOC officials admitted that the bridge was near the home of a Monroe woman he was convicted of raping in 1995 when she was 15.

Torrence is believed to have fled to live with family in Arkansas, authorities said.

Since the incident, the head of the state Department of Corrections ordered that victims of sex crimes must be notified when those convicted of attacks remove their GPS tracking device.

Torrence, 43, was one of nearly 90 Level 3 sex offenders who had been assigned to GPS monitoring since the program began late last year, said Anna Aylward, DOC's program administrator. Of those offenders, four have removed their ankle bracelets and with Torrence's apprehension only one, 55-year-old James Murphy, remains on the loose.

The DOC started using GPS tracking late last year in reaction to Gov. Christine Gregoire's promise to keep people safe from sexual predators. Gregoire pushed for changes after 12-year-old Zina Linnik, of Tacoma, was abducted and killed by convicted sex offender Terapon Adhahn.