A fugitive was busted in the Philippines nearly four decades after he allegedly abducted a 7-year-old girl from a bowling alley in Florida and raped her, according to authorities and reports.
Young Tom Talmadge, 69, was arrested last Thursday at his residence in Cavite after a breakthrough in DNA evidence linked him to the 1989 cold case, the Bureau of Immigration of the Philippines announced.
A warrant had already been issued on March 20 in Hillsborough County, Florida, for abducting and raping the 7-year-old girl after US investigators uncovered the key genealogical evidence, authorities said.
The harrowing case unfolded in 1989 at the since-closed Tampa Lanes bowling alley when Talmadge allegedly lured the child to his car after giving her coins to play arcade games, Fox13 Tampa reported.
He allegedly sexually battered the child and dropped her off at a different bowling alley as customers and employees frantically searched for the missing girl, the outlet reported.
She was later recognized by a man at the second bowling alley.
The case ran cold until the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed an alleged match between Talmadge and preserved DNA evidence.
Talmadge has been charged with sexual battery on a victim less than 12 years old by an adult, lewd and lascivious acts on a child, and kidnapping to commit a felony on a child.
The creep is also the subject of a deportation case for undesirability regarding his status as a fugitive from justice, authorities said.
Talmage was brought to the BI Warden Facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, and will remain behind bars there pending deportation proceedings, immigration officials added.
The arrest was part of the Bureau of Immigration’s “#ShieldKids” campaign, which aims to prevent the Philippines from becoming a haven for foreign sex offenders.
“We will continue to work closely with international counterparts to protect Filipino children and uphold justice,” Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said in a statement. “Foreign fugitives who commit crimes against children will find no refuge here.
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