Jim Walsh, The (Cherry Hill, N.J.) Courier-Post

CHERRY HILL, N.J. — Law enforcement officers spent three days concealed in a wooded area to catch an admitted child sex offender who’s been hiding from the law for 23 years.

New Jersey State Police troopers wore leafy camouflage garb while they watched over a Pennsylvania truck stop for James Wade Barclay, one of New Jersey’s Top 12 fugitives.

Barclay, 48, was arrested without incident Saturday in Boswell, Pa., almost 250 miles from South Jersey.

Burlington County Sheriff’s officers also took part in the surveillance and arrest.

“We finally got him,” Burlington County Sheriff Jean Stanfield said Monday. “It’s great.”

Authorities have been searching for Barclay since September 1991, when he failed to show up for sentencing in a Mount Holly courtroom. Barclay previously pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Authorities said he sexually assaulted a boy multiple times between August 1988 and July 1989. The victim was 9 at the time of Barclay’s arrest in September 1989.

The assaults occurred when Barclay invited his victim into his home, authorities said.

According to the State Police, Barclay adopted a new name, James C. Toryone, and found work as a tractor-trailer driver. He purchased a house and built a new network of friends.

“This fake identity enabled him to participate in social functions where children were present,” police said in a statement. Barclay’s most recent address was not immediately available, according to Trooper Jeff Flynn, a State Police spokesman.

Detectives in the State Police Fugitive Unit learned of Barclay’s alias within the past two weeks, the statement said. An investigation led to a “stop ‘n ride” parking lot in Boswell, which is in a rural area near Johnstown, Pa.

Three members of the Fugitive Unit conducted surveillance, wearing camouflage to blend into a nearby forest and facing sub-freezing temperatures overnight. The detectives, using a rental car as their base, rotated shifts while they looked for Barclay, said Trooper Jeff Flynn, a State Police spokesman.

“It was round-the-clock surveillance,” Flynn said.

Detectives located Barclay in a parked tractor-trailer in Boswell, then arrested him without incident as he left the vehicle. “Barclay used his alias before admitting his true identity,” the statement said.

Barclay was held on $5 million bail in Somerset County Jail. He awaits extradition to New Jersey.

See more at USA TODAY

 

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