Rapist fell off radar

There are more than 52,000 sex offenders and predators listed in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement database.

Nearly 800 have not registered with law enforcement agencies after they completed prison terms or changed addresses.

Convicted rapist Joseph Lee Frye was among that number.

When he was released from prison on Aug. 1, he had 48 hours to register his sex offender status with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and tell them he would be checking in at a local hotel.

Although FDLE's online database is expansive and frequently updates the list of absconded sex offenders, Frye still slipped through the cracks and kept eluding police even after he became the prime suspect in the Aug. 28 rape of an elderly Seminole Heights woman.

For several weeks, three agencies were aware that Frye failed to register his status as a sex offender.

It began when the sheriff's office was notified by the Florida Department of Corrections prior to his release that Frye, a Tampa native, was returning to the area, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Frye told prison officials that he would be staying at the Alaska Motel at 1301 E. Hillsborough Ave.

Authorities realized on Aug. 7 that Frye had not registered. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement sent an e-mail that day to the sheriff's office informing them about Frye.

The corporal responsible for responding to those types of notices from FDLE had the day off and did not forward the e-mail until Aug. 10 to the Tampa Police Department, which has jurisdiction over the area near the Alaska Motel, Carter said.

The sheriff's office doesn't consider the delay an oversight or a flaw in its procedures. It was the corporal's "job responsibility and he took the day off," Carter said.

The system of having one person at the sheriff's office field the FDLE e-mails is still in place, Carter said.

But even after Tampa police received notice about Frye on Aug. 10, it took 10 more days for a patrol officer to make the initial check on Frye and report that he wasn't at the motel.

Police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said it's not clear why the lag occurred. There are about 700 sexual offenders and predators registered in Tampa, McElroy said, and patrol officers conduct 8,400 checks each year.

"It is effective, but it's not perfect," McElroy said. "Obviously, it's not ideal to have a 10-day delay."

Deputies and officers don't start actively searching for absconded sex offenders because they could be anywhere in the United States, McElroy said. A person about to be released from prison could tell DOC officials he plans to move to Tampa, but "that's based on the word of a convicted sex offender," she said.

Police checked on Frye again on Aug. 22, McElroy said, then informed FDLE that officers didn't find him.

Frye's status on FDLE's online database was updated to "absconded" on Aug. 24. By then, police said, Frye had already broken into a home on West Giddens Avenue and stole $12,000 in jewelry. Investigators say Frye then sold $10,000 worth of the items to several people and a pawn shop.

Four days later, he overpowered a woman in her 70s, raped her in the bedroom of her Seminole Heights home and fled with her gun, cash and jewelry, police said. Frye was caught Sept. 3 at the Mayflower Motel on North Florida Avenue after a massive manhunt.

After his arrest, Frye told detectives that he received $100 from the Department of Corrections after his release from prison and chose not to stay at the Alaska Motel because it cost $45 a night.

He decided to leave and lived on the streets until he checked into the Mayflower Motel on Aug. 28, the day the elderly woman was raped, police said.

Frye, 49, is charged with three counts of armed sexual battery, two counts of burglary, and one count each of battery of a person older than 65, grand theft, defrauding a pawn broker and dealing in stolen property.

A judge denied bail for Frye, saying he is a danger to the community. Frye is being held at Orient Road Jail. He is deemed as an escape risk because Frye tried at least twice to escape from prisons.