Joseph Gregory Vansickle - Repeat Sex Offender - Most Wanted - Captured

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
..... Sarah Tofte

Gwinnett deputies on Tuesday arrested one of Minnesota's most wanted fugitives, a repeat sex offender, at an apartment complex in Duluth.

Joseph Gregory Vansickle, 32, also is accused of molesting a 9-year-old girl in Georgia.

Deputies went to Gables at Sugarloaf apartments at 100 Woodiron Drive on Tuesday evening to serve "Nathan William Savage" with warrants for six counts of child molestation. He initially hid in a closet and threatened to shoot the deputies, forcing them to back out of the apartment and call out the SWAT team, according to Gwinnett sheriff's spokeswoman Stacey Bourbonnais.

He surrendered peacefully as soon as SWAT officers arrived on the scene, Bourbonnais said.

After deputies booked the man into the jail, a check of his fingerprints through a federal database revealed Savage was really Vansickle, a convicted felon on the run from authorities in Ramsey County, Minnesota.

Vansickle was convicted of criminal sexual conduct involving a minor in Minnesota in 1995, according to Nick O'Hara of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office in St. Paul, Minn.

After his release, Vansickle was charged with molesting two other girls, ages 10 and 5, in 2001 before he allegedly skipped bail and left the state.

It was not known Wednesday how long Vansickle had been in Duluth.

Bourbonnais said he was not listed on the Gwinnett County sex offender registry, but investigators believe he had been living at the apartment complex where he was arrested.

13% of all new sex crimes are committed by
registered sex offenders.
Currently registered sex offenders are
one fifth of one percent of the population


0.2% of the population is committing 13%
of all NEW sex crimes
per Sarah Tofte

More than seven years ago, landlord Joseph Vansickle was charged with sexually molesting two young girls in his properties in St. Paul.

Vansickle, then 24, went to his first court hearing in January 2001, posted $40,000 bail -- and skipped town.

Over time, he made his way about 1,000 miles south to Lawrenceville, Ga., where he became friends with a family and temporarily moved into their home.

Last month, Vansickle's pattern of sexual abuse came to light when the family's 9-year-old daughter heard he was coming to her house to do repair work and panicked, police said. The frightened girl told her grandfather that Vansickle had molested her, and the family called police.

At his arrest, Vansickle, now 32, gave his name to Gwinnett police as Nathan William Savage. A 30-minute search of an FBI nationwide fingerprint database showed Savage was indeed Vansickle, a fugitive wanted in Minnesota for similar sex offenses.

Vansickle has been charged with six counts of felony child molestation and is being held without bail. He has been very uncooperative with detectives, said officer David Schiralli, spokesman for the Gwinnett Police Department. His case remains under investigation, but police haven't been informed of any other victims, he said.

Vansickle apparently moved to Georgia and became friends with the girl's family several years ago, Schiralli said. The man they knew as Nathan Savage lived with the family from January to June 2007. That's when the alleged abuse took place, he said.

The girl told her grandfather "she didn't like that guy" after he said Vansickle was dropping by to do some work, Schiralli said. She had recently attended a "Good Touch, Bad Touch" presentation at her elementary school. After the grandfather learned why, he told the girl's parents.

Vansickle doesn't have a criminal history in Georgia, Schiralli said.

"I'm sure the girl's parents are very distraught over this," he said.

Forced to write a letter

Vansickle became a fugitive after he missed a court hearing in Ramsey County in February 2001 for a first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge involving a 5-year-old girl. She might not have come forward if Vansickle's probation officer had not made him write a letter two months earlier to the tenants in his two St. Paul buildings about his 1994 sexual molestation conviction.

State law requires sex offenders to register addresses of any property they own, rent or lease. Vansickle's probation officer told the Star Tribune in a 2001 story that it was appropriate to have him notify his tenants because there were 11 minors who lived in the properties.

When he wrote the letter, Vansickle was already in the workhouse for violating a probation requirement to stay away from juveniles under 16.

One of his tenants discussed the letter with her 5-year-old daughter. The girl said Vansickle had assaulted her in the building's basement the previous summer.

After he was arrested for molesting the 5-year-old, police learned about a 10-year-old girl he sexually assaulted in January 2001. Vansickle was a friend of the girl's family, the criminal complaint said.

The girl told police that Vansickle made her watch pornographic movies and that she noticed child pornography on his computer, the complaint said. He denied touching her.

Vansickle was also charged with failing to file as a sexual offender when officers couldn't locate him in March 2001. He has two outstanding warrants from Ramsey County.