COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Authorities say a Scottish man who reportedly faked his death off California’s Central Coast to avoid rape charges in his homeland has been arrested.
Kim Vincent Avis, 55, also known as Ken Gordon-Avis, was arrested in Colorado Springs last week, authorities announced on Friday. Consequently, the U.S. Marshals Service is holding him, Fox News reported.
The man’s teenage son alerted the police that his father disappeared on Feb. 25 after going for a nighttime swim in the area.
But the searchers couldn’t locate the man or any trace that he was actually swimming at Monastery Beach, often dubbed “Mortuary Beach” as a result of its deadly reputation.
Three days later, investigators began to theorize that this was an elaborate hoax to avoid facing criminal charges, as the man is wanted on 24 counts of rape in Scotland.
“When that came up, we start to wonder if this is a hoax, and he’s trying to escape these charges out of Scotland,” sheriff’s Capt. John Thornburg said.
The detectives claim the son’s story lacked crucial details, and he couldn’t explain how he and his father got to California’s central coast after traveling by air from Scotland to Los Angeles.
“There was a lack of detail,” Thornburg said at the time. “The son, who reported it, couldn’t even tell us where he went in under the water.”
The son has been returned to Scotland and won’t face charges for filing a false report. The suspect, meanwhile, is set to be extradited back to Scotland to face the charges.
