California Man Charged With Sexual Assault Discovered In Florida Years After Faking Suicide

An alleged California sex offender has been located in Florida years after faking a suicide attempt in San Francisco.

The Chico Police Department in California originally received a tip that in 2015 that Michael Patrick Manning, now 58, had sexually assaulted a young girl a few years earlier. The abuse reportedly began in 2008, when the girl was 12-years-old and continued until she was 14. Manning was then arrested and booked, but quickly posted bail.

However, Manning was in custody not long after because investigators discovered he was in possession of child pornography. Hundreds of images of child pornography were discovered, prompting him to be booked and post bail a second time.

While Manning pleaded no contest to the charges, he failed to appear at a Sept. 6, 2015 sentencing hearing and police issued another arrest warrant.

Police then discovered a rental car signed to Manning abandoned by the Golden Gate Bridge along with a suicide note in October 2016. Police were never able to find a body, leading authorities to believe Manning had faked his death.

In a press release, Chico police said they had searched all over the California coast and determined that, on multiple occasions, they had just missed Manning before he moved on.

Manning was re-discovered in Florida on May 3 when Monroe County Sheriff’s officers found him in an unlocked trailer while investigating a possible burglary nearby. According to a press release, Manning said his name was “William Wallace Littlejohn” and he was in possession of a military contractor I.D. and several passports that bore the same name.

Police believed the passports to be fakes and got reached out to U.S. Border Patrol. Patrol agents then found that the passport number belonged to a man in Utah. Police then took him into custody, with Manning being booked as “John Doe” after refusing to provide his name. However, the police obtained his identity after running his fingerprints.

Manning is now facing charges of giving law enforcement a false name and identification and is currently being held without bail pending extradition to California.