Escaped Alabama sex offender recaptured, found with missing teenager
Published 10:35 am Monday, November 4, 2019
A registered sex offender who had escaped police custody late last month was caught early Monday morning along with a teenage girl who had also been reported missing.
Morgan County Sheriff’s Office deputies reported the capture of 30-year-old John Kaleb Gillespie early Monday on Interstate 459 near Bessemer with Bessemer and Hoover police responding.
The pair reportedly crashed near an exit on the Interstate 459.
Law enforcement officials report that in addition to Gillespie, a 16-year-old girl, Peyton Bryleigh Ledlow, was also found in the car. Ledlow had been missing from her home in Moulton the day after Gillespie managed to escape from the Morgan County Jail.
Last week police publicly said they believed the two were together on the run.
Gillespie was required to register as a sex offender since he pleaded guilty to statutory rape charges in 2009.
He was more recently in custody after a standoff with Decatur police after he was sought on charges of selling drugs and trying to run over an Alabama state trooper.