A sexually violent predator who escaped last month while on supervised release from custody has been found dead off a busy Mid-City roadway, authorities said Tuesday.
The body of Merle Wakefield, 69, was discovered at about 9:30 a.m. Monday off the 4800 block of Fairmount Avenue in San Diego, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. A ruling on his cause of death was on hold pending autopsy results.
He had been at large since early on the morning of Sept. 25, when he managed to remove his mandated GPS tracker and fled while on a job he was working in Rancho Bernardo under the auspices of the California Conditional Release Program.
The regional Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force and the sheriff’s Fugitive Task Force have been looking for Wakefield since his disappearance.
Wakefield, who was convicted in 1980 and 1991 of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor under age 14 and forcible rape, had been on supervised release since November 2024.
He was designated a sexually violent predator by the state, meaning that he had been convicted of a sexually violent offense against one or more victims, had a diagnosed mental disorder that made him a danger to the health and safety of others and was considered likely to continue to engage in sexually violent criminal behavior.
