An escapee from a sex offender treatment program in St. Peter was captured Sunday in Missouri, police said.
Loren Edwards, 53, was last seen at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center on Friday night. Police began searching for him after learning he was missing the following evening.
Edwards was spotted Saturday in Albert Lea, Minn., with a 2004 silver Dodge Stratus, police said in a Facebook post.
Court records show Edwards entered the state‘s sex offender treatment program in 2008, while in prison for crimes, including first- and second-degree criminal sexual assault and kidnapping.
In 2001, according to records, he invited a 15-year-old girl into his car, where he pulled down her dress and touched her breasts. Two months later, he lured another teenage girl into his vehicle and forced her at knifepoint to perform oral sex on him, records show.
Edwards pleaded guilty to charges stemming from both incidents.
Dakota County filed a petition to civilly commit him as a sexually dangerous person in January 2011. A judge agreed, finding he was likely to engage in “future harmful sexual conduct.”
Edwards appealed the decision and lost.
