10:24 PM CST on Tuesday, January 10, 2006

By Jeremy Desel / 11 News

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In the end it was crime that would end Charles Anderson's life on the run.

It was a violent kidnapping and sexual assault on New Years Day.

The catch is that Charles Anderson shouldn't have been on the streets at all.

"Wasn't that hard to locate or find. People knew where he was. If we had done that a couple of months earlier, you know, things change. Life would have some sense of normalcy for this 57-year-old woman," said the crime victim's advocate, Andy Kahan.

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Andy Kahan

Anderson was on parole and had a fugitive warrant issued against him.

To be a fugitive, Anderson had to do more than just not check in, he vanished.

Anderson is far from alone. There are literally thousands of offenders on the run in Harris County alone.

Robbers, rapists and even murderers are among them.

"As of December of 2005 you've got 3,256 fugitives from parole and these are all felons," Kahan said.

Of that total, 219 are robbers, 78 are sex offenders and 58 are murderers.

That number includes one, Lester Ray Brown, who has been on the run since 1975.

Charles Anderson had actually been paroled twice. In 1989 he was paroled on his aggravated robbery rap. He was sent back to prison after being convicted twice for DWI and twice for misdemeanor drug possession.

Paroled again in 2001, he became a fugitive in October.

Kahan said the difference between fugitives like Anderson and a high profile escapee like Charles Victor Thompson is small. "The only difference is he's serving the time in your community. Escapee's whereabouts unknown. Declared a fugitive. Nobody knows. We treat it like night and day. Nobody knows. That's got to change," Kahan said.

In all there are more than 12,000 fugitive parole violators in Texas and a quarter of them are here in Harris County.