Night Watch: Fugitive Faked His Own Kidnapping: The Hunt For Anthony Lennon

This is Crime House.

Arcase tonight is a testament to how important it is for investigators to trust their instincts

and not give up.

Even when leads go cold for years, Anthony Lennon had a criminal history of possessing

child sex abuse material.

And when serious prison time seemed certain for him, Anthony allegedly staged his own

kidnapping and went on the run.

Let's get into it.

A convicted child sex offender has been captured after spending 13 years on the run.

Lennon escaped his arrest for possessing child pornography involving babies.

They say he was able to run after he got probation the first time he was caught.

Law enforcement says Lennon has been hiding since 2012, where detectives say he faked

his own death at a super eight motel where he worked.

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From 2008 Anthony Lennon was charged in Oklahoma on five counts of aggravated child pornography.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 and received a 20 year suspended sentence with probation.

By 2011 he violated probation and was soon charged with eight new counts of possession

of child pornography.

A warrant was issued for his arrest but days later Anthony disappeared.

Police investigated a crime scene at Anthony's place of work which on the service looked

like the one and man had been kidnapped but pretty soon authorities determined that Anthony

had staged the whole thing and he was now on the run.

Years went by without any real sign of Anthony but finally in October 2025 authorities tracked

him down after months of surveillance Anthony was finally arrested.

However, as of this recording he won't admit that he actually is Anthony Lennon but the

authorities are positive they have their man and Anthony Lennon's criminal history goes

back a long time over 15 years let's dive in.

It all started in Norman the third largest city in Oklahoma.

Norman is best known for being the home of the University of Oklahoma a massive vibrant

school in the heart of the state with over 30,000 students.

In 2008 27 year old Anthony Michael Lennon was one of those students.

The school hasn't revealed any information beyond the fact that someone with the name

was enrolled in the school but one things for sure.

In his free time Anthony was doing some horrible things which one of his friends discovered

one day when Anthony let him use his computer.

Much to Anthony's dismay that friend came across something he never ever wanted to see.

Graphic and violent child sexual abuse imagery.

Thankfully his friend did the right thing and immediately reported it to the Norman Police

Department.

Authorities promptly investigated and confirmed that there were 50 gigabytes of material

on Anthony's computer.

Anthony was charged with five counts of aggravated child pornography.

In Oklahoma a single count of child pornography is considered aggravated when it refers to

a hundred or more images.

Court proceedings dragged out for a while after Anthony was initially charged but in 2010

Anthony made a blind plea of guilty on all five counts.

A blind plea means that the defendant hasn't made any sort of deal with the state regarding

their sentencing.

So the judge could sentence Anthony to any punishment.

To the maximum for his crimes which in this case was life in prison.

However, Anthony only received a 20-year sentence which ended up being suspended.

For the terms of his sentencing Anthony would never actually have to serve that time unless

he violated his probation which to me is one of the biggest problems in our legal system

because what do you mean you're just letting a child predator back onto the street with

no repercussions.

But luckily Anthony violated his probation.

One of the conditions of Anthony's probation was for him to register as a sex offender

which he failed to do.

And that was just the beginning.

He also wasn't supposed to use a computer but in 2011 he violated that order too.

When authorities learned about this they took steps to impose consequences.

And that's when it came to light that Anthony hadn't just violated his probation.

He had committed another major offense, surprise surprise.

He'd acquired even more child abuse imagery.

Detectives found literal piles of evidence in the form of compact discs stacked up in

Anthony's home.

When investigators analyzed the contents of the discs they made the gruesome discovery

that Anthony had a particular leaning towards infants and various forms of brutality.

He's found even more material in Anthony's chat logs and files on his desktop computer.

Anthony had once again committed a major felony and prosecutors had more than enough evidence

to charge and convict him.

On Wednesday, March 7, 2012, Anthony was charged with eight counts of possession of child

pornography.

However, officers needed to wait for an arrest warrant to be approved so Anthony was

still walking free.

When an arrest warrant was finally issued on a $100,000 bond.

At the same time, on Monday, March 12, 2012, Anthony showed up for work at a super eight

motel about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City.

Shortly after he arrived, someone called the police and urged them to come to the hotel.

When they got there, Anthony was nowhere to be found.

And officers found a plate of food in the manager's office where he would normally be.

When they noticed the cash register was left wide open, it had been completely emptied.

And on top of that, office papers were scattered everywhere.

At first glance, it looked like the place had been robbed.

But there was much more to uncover.

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On March 12, 2012, police in Oklahoma responded to a call at a super eight motel where Anthony

Lenin worked.

He was supposed to be working at the time, but when they got there, there was no sign

of him.

At first, it looked like a robbery had occurred, but as they kept looking around the property,

officers noticed deep red footprints that led towards an ice machine.

When they traced the footprints back to the source, they discovered a large pool of blood

at the bottom of a staircase.

And near the puddle underneath the bottom stair rail was Anthony's employee badge.

It was lying face up so Anthony's name was immediately visible, and it looked as

though it had fallen off in the midst of a struggle.

As officers continued their search of the premises, they also found buttons from Anthony

Sher and one of his shoes, but they noticed something else too.

All of these items seemed carefully placed, like they were left behind intentionally.

It's when they started to wonder if Anthony had staged the scene to make it look like

he was kidnapped before going on the run.

You'll remember Anthony was facing a $100,000 warrant for his arrest, so it's possible

he knew he wouldn't be able to pay, and he decided to flee instead.

Despite their suspicions, detectives wanted to be on the safe side, so they launched an investigation

into a robbery and possible kidnapping.

Then the blood was confirmed to be Anthony's, which only painted a more bizarre picture

for the investigators, who thought if Anthony had staged the scene to look like a kidnapping,

it would have taken a lot of effort to drain that much blood of his own.

However, this didn't convince the detectives that Anthony was actually kidnapped.

If anything, it made them realize that he was not only on the loose, but he was extremely

unhinged.

So within hours of responding to the initial call, detectives from the more police department

called in the US Marshall Service for additional help with the case.

A quick aside here to get into what it means to bring in the marshals, because it's an

agency with a very specific role.

They were formed as the enforcement arm of the federal court system, which means that

along with doing things like protecting courthouses and judges, the marshals can also be deployed

to capture fugitives who are trying to escape federal charges, people like Anthony Lennon.

Once they were on the case, the marshals quickly sent word to border security, so it would

be flagged if Anthony tried to leave the country.

As authorities started looking into Anthony's recent activity, they discovered that the

day before he disappeared, he'd gone to the bank and emptied out his entire account.

From there, investigators spoke to employees at the bank, who said that when Anthony made

the withdrawal, he told them that he was in trouble with the law.

This solidified investigators' belief that he'd fled.

However, days went on with no new information, then days turned to weeks, which turned

a month, and then to years.

Investigators felt that a big reason Anthony was able to stay off the grid was his extensive

technical knowledge.

He held a master's degree in computer science, and at the time of his disappearance, he

was working towards a doctorate, so he likely could have figured out how to delete records

of himself or even doctor false records.

Anthony Lennon had basically dropped off the face of the earth, but neither the Moore Police

Department nor the US Marshal's service ever gave up on the search for him.

If their theories were right and he was still out there, they were afraid he would victimize

innocent children.

Eventually, the US Marshal's regional fugitive task force took over the majority of the investigation,

and they continued searching for Anthony for 13 years.

During that time, they executed over 100 search warns and conducted extensive interviews.

They traveled to different states, including Tennessee, Texas, and Nevada, always maintaining

hope that they could solve the case, despite so many dead ends.

Finally, in 2020, agents turned up a new but small lead.

In February of that year, they were tracking Anthony's online activity when they noticed

something on his Amazon account from North Carolina.

A phone charger was placed in his shopping cart.

Even though it didn't prove much, it at least indicated that Anthony was still in the US.

Investigators didn't turn up anything for two more years after that.

Even in 2022, attendees at an annual anime convention outside of Dallas, Texas, reported

that they had seen Anthony.

And this isn't surprising because of the contents of his computer, apparently I just learned

that anime is the number one most popular porn.

In July of 2025, the Oklahoma Attorney General's office added Anthony to their 10 most wanted

list.

The program was started in September of 2024 to bring publicity to high profile cases

and create more opportunities for the public to help provide information on dangerous fugitives.

Since the program was launched, 15 people accused of crimes like murder, drug trafficking

have been successfully apprehended.

Now Anthony Lennon was on that list, and the US Marshals were following yet another lead.

These haven't revealed how they discovered this lead, but they started eyeing a man named

Justin Tyler Phillips.

Justin lived in the small town of Canton, New York.

And in the fall of 2024, he had enrolled at the State University of New York at Canton.

He lived off campus while pursuing an associate's degree in the engineering science.

Justin got excellent grades and hoped to transfer to either MIT or nearby Clarkson University.

Between classes, he worked at the front desk at the holiday and express.

To those who knew Justin, it seemed like he was working hard towards his future.

However, US Marshals had a different theory about him.

They believed he was actually Anthony Lennon.

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By the summer of 2025, federal authorities had located a man in New York going by the name

of Justin Phillips, who they believed was actually Anthony Lennon, and that he'd been living freely

out in the open for years. No one at a school or the holiday in had any clue who he was,

because the man by the name of Justin Phillips had provided them with an official state ID and

birth certificate. It was a well played scheme on Anthony's part, but now the jig was up.

Once the U.S. Marshals had enough evidence that Justin really was Anthony,

they called in one of the original investigators on the case, Detective Jason Landrum,

who quickly booked a flight to New York. Detective Landrum and other investigators

stayed about an hour outside of Canton as a precaution. There were a lot of them,

and they worried that such a large number of detectives would be noticed in a small town.

If Anthony caught wind, he might get away again. On Thursday, October 30, 2025,

surveillance teams trailed 44-year-old Anthony. When he left his residence that day,

he headed to campus. Then, after class, Anthony headed to his neighborhood grocery store.

Their investigators gathered outside and waited for the right moment to move in.

And once they had Anthony in a secure part of the store, they surrounded him.

Anthony Lennon was finally in custody. The people who'd gotten to know him in Canton were shocked.

They only knew Justin as a straight-A student whose behavior never set off any alarm bells.

But behind that unassuming mask, there was a man with an extremely dark past.

Later, fingerprint analysis confirmed that it was really Anthony.

Once they got the confirmation, Detective Landrum called his colleagues back in Oklahoma to share

the news. The very next day, Anthony was banned from campus. But that was the least of his problems.

As of this recording, Anthony is in federal custody in Syracuse, New York. Despite the

fingerprint evidence of his true identity, Anthony is sticking to the name Justin Phillips,

and swears he's not really Anthony Lennon. His attorney will only refer to him as

a man alleged to be Anthony Lennon. She also won't comment on the charges of probation,

violation, or possession of pornographic child sexual abuse material.

As of this recording, the prosecution is trying to definitively prove his identity.

Authorities are also seeking to have Anthony return to Oklahoma.

Once he's there, he will face the eight counts of possession of child pornography

that he was charged with in 2012, in the Cleveland County Court. As soon as it was confirmed

that Anthony left Oklahoma, the Cleveland County District Attorney's office,

obtained a federal warrant to arrest him for failing to register as a sex offender and violating

his probation. In addition to the charges Anthony will face in Oklahoma, New York authorities

are obtaining search warrants for any crimes that could have been committed while he was living

in their state. They're currently looking into digital evidence and records of past residences.

Anthony may have thought he could outsmart authorities, but clearly his own hubris got the

better of him. Now he'll have to own up to all of his wrongdoing. And as more police

chief Todd Gibson said after Anthony's arrest, I would like to point out to anyone that seeks to harm

or exploit children. You need to know this. We will not stop. We will not lose focus and no matter

how long it takes or how far you run, we will come for you. As always, we'll be sure to keep you

up-to-date on any progress in this investigation.

What did you think of tonight's case? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments.

See you next time. If you haven't already, subscribe to our YouTube channel at Crime House Daily

and follow us on social media at CrimeHouse247 for real-time updates because a pursuit of justice

never stops.

Thanks for listening to today's episode. Not sure what to listen to next? Check out America's

most infamous crimes hosted by Katie Ring. From serial killers to unsolved mysteries and

game-changing investigations, each week Katie takes on a notorious criminal case in American history.

Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes now wherever you listen to podcasts.