PORTLAND — Oregon State Police say officers in Montana have captured a man suspected of faking his death in a fishing accident 15 years ago just before he was due in court in Southern Oregon on child sex-abuse charges.
Police identified him Friday as Daniel Clement Chafe, 55, and said he was arrested two days earlier in Bozeman.
He was accused in 1998 of rape, sodomy and sex abuse of two teenage girls. Police said they identified other victims.
He was due in court in Douglas County in September 1998 but didn’t show up.
A police statement said a friend from Washington state told authorities Chafe fell from a fishing boat on the Snake River. A search failed to find him, and investigators considered him a fugitive.
