BUFFALO, N.Y. — A man with connections to Buffalo who was convicted for child sexual exploitation escaped from custody.
He was found around 6 p.m. Friday in Boston, Mass.
The U.S. Marshals Service says Christopher Luke failed to report to a residential recovery program, similar to a halfway house, in Lake Charles, La., on Dec. 28.
Deputy U.S. Marshal James Bona says Luke was placed on "furlough" status, meaning he was released from the jail cell for good behavior but had to report to that halfway house and remain under supervision.
Since he didn't report back to the halfway house within 30 days, he was placed under "escape" status.
Luke was serving a 20-year sentence from a 2013 conviction for sexual exploitation of minors-engaging in a child exploitation enterprise.
The U.S. Justice Department arrested dozens of men from 14 countries for exploiting kids on that website more than a decade ago.
Luke was one of two Western New York men who were arrested.
U.S. Marshals said Luke, who last lived in Tonawanda, still has friends and family in Buffalo and might have returned. That was before he was located in Massachusetts on Friday.
"The belief is he's in Western New York. We don't entirely know that yet," Bona said. "We suspect he is because this is where he has ties to, and it is believed that when he diverted from his original course where he was supposed to go, that he may have boarded a flight to Buffalo.
"So therefore we started reaching out to people who grew up with. Some of them said they had comment with him. There's no indication necessarily or definitively that he's in Western New York. No one's seen him."
If you have any information regarding Christopher Luke or his whereabouts, you're asked to call U.S. Marshals in Buffalo at 716-225-0591.