List of anti-sex offender attacks in the United States

This is a list of anti-sex offender attacks in the United States.

In the United States, attacks against sex offenders have been facilitated by federal and state laws regarding sex offender registration and notification, which require sex offenders to disclose their identities and addresses to the public. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} Such attacks have been shown to extend to family members of sex offenders, as well as people falsely accused of being sex offenders. ^{[5] [6]}

A study reported that 15% of sex offenders in the country have been attacked since their crimes were made public, with one-third having received violent threats. ^{[7] [5]} Another study reported that 16% have been physically assaulted due to their registration. ^[8] A database of anti-sex offender attacks included 279 fatal and non-fatal incidents from 1983 to 2015, with 5% of victims being people falsely accused of being sex offenders. ^{[7] [5]} An investigation by The New York Times reported 170 video-recorded attacks against people accused of sexual crimes from 2023 to 2025, many of which perpetrated by organized vigilante organizations. ^{[9] [10]}

Fatal attacks

Victim(s)	Date	Location	Description	Reference(s)
Jeffrey Doucet	March 1984	Baton Rouge, Louisiana	Doucet was shot and killed by Gary Plauche, the father of the 12-year-old boy whom he had kidnapped and raped. Plauche pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to five years of probation.	[11]
Daniel Driver	April 1993	Jamestown, California	Driver was shot dead by Ellie Nesler during his trial for allegedly molesting Nesler's son. Nesler pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was released from prison in 1997.	[12]
John Geoghan	August 2003	Shirley, Massachusetts	Beaten to death by Joseph Druce while imprisoned for assaulting a ten-year-old boy. Druce, who was already serving a life sentence for murder, was convicted of first degree murder and received another life sentence.	[13]
Richard Ausley	January 2004	Waverly, Virginia	Beaten and strangled by his cellmate, Dewey Keith Venable, while imprisoned for abusing a teenage boy in 1972. Ausley was previously notorious as the kidnapper and rapist of Paul Martin Andrews. Venable, who had been molested as a child, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and had 12.5 years added to his sentence.	[14]
Angela Smith	January 2005	Tucson, Arizona	Former member of The Family International who was killed by Ricky Rodriguez, another former member who she had raped as a child.	[15]
Victor Vazquez, Hank Eisses	August 2005	Bellingham, Washington	Michael Mullen used a sex offender registry to attack three sex offenders. He murdered two of them, but spared the third on the grounds that he had shown remorse. Michael Mullen pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 44 years in prison. He died in prison in 2008.	[16] [17]
William Elliott, Joseph Gray	April 2006	Corinth, Maine	A vigilante used a sex offender registry to murder two sex offenders	[2] [18] [19]
Melissa Chandler	September 2007	Helenwood, Tennessee	A man charged with child pornography had his house set on fire, which killed his wife. The fire was set by two men, Robert Bell and Gary Sellers. Bell pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Sellers was convicted of facilitating aggravated arson and sentenced to 12 years in prison.	[20] [21]
Jamar Pinkney	November 2009	Detroit, Michigan	Murdered by his father, Jamar Pinkney Sr., after confessing to molesting his 3-year-old sister. Pinkney Sr. was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 37 to 80 years in prison.	[22]
Jerry Wayne Ray, Gary Lee Blanton	June 2012	Sequim, Washington	Patrick Drum murdered two sex offenders known to him, including his roommate. He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole	[23]
Charles Parker, Gretchen Parker	July 2013	Union County, South Carolina	Two Neo-Nazis, Jeremy Moody and Christian Moody, used a sex offender registry to kill a sex offender and his wife. The two pleaded guilty to murder and were sentenced to life in prison without parole.	[24]
Mattieo Condoluci	2020	Omaha, Nebraska	A man murdered a sex offender, accusing him of looking at children in a street.	[25]
Daxcimo Ceja	2022	Colorado Springs, Colorado	A woman shot a sex offender, dismembered his corpse, and disposed of his body in a drainage ditch.	[26]
Sean Showers	2024	Houston, Texas	A man pretended to be a minor in order to lure a sex offender to his location, where he shot him several times.	[27]
David Brimmer	September 2025	Fremont, California	A 71-year-old sex offender was found dead with stab wounds.	[28]

Non-fatal attacks

Attacker(s)	Date	Location	Description	Reference(s)
Kenneth J. Kerekes Sr., Kenneth J. Kerekes Jr.	1995	Phillipsburg, New Jersey	Two vigilantes, notified through Megan's Law of the presence of a sex offender in a community, broke into his house and attacked a man they mistook for him.	[29] [30]
James Johnson	June 1998	Linden, New Jersey	A vigilante fired bullets at the house of a sex offender.	[3] [31]
Lawrence Trant	2003	Concord, New Hampshire	A Canadian vigilante attempted to kill two sex offenders he had found using a government registry.	[32] [33]
Bonita Lynn Vela	December 2013	Franklin, Indiana	Vela held her daughter's boyfriend prisoner in her trailer for several hours and cut his penis with a box cutter after accusing him of molesting her son. She pleaded guilty to battery and was sentenced to home confinement.	[34]
Steven Nigg	January 2016	Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood	Steven Nigg violently beat Jared Fogle, who was serving a 15-year prison sentence for distributing child pornography.	[35]
Jason Vukovich	June 2016	Anchorage, Alaska	A vigilante used sex offender registry to assault and rob three victims.	[36] [37]
Cain Velasquez	February 28, 2022	Santa Clara County, California	Former professional mixed martial artist, Cain Velasquez, pursued and attempted to shoot Harry Goularte Jr., who was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing Velasquez's son at a daycare owned by Goularte's family before being released on bond. Velasquez was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison and four years of supervised probation with eligibility for parole in March 2026.	[38] [39] [40]

See also

• Vigilantism in the United States

References

1. "Vigilantism and the Sex Offender Registry". Merion West. December 20, 2024. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
2. "A vigilantes' charter? The bitter legacy of Megan's Law". The Independent. June 23, 2006. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
3. "Vigilantism and Megan's Law". New York Times.
4. Long, Joshua; Vukovich, Jason (May 24, 2023). Avenging Child Sex Abuse: Vigilante Violence in Prisons and the Community (1 ed.). New York: Routledge. pp. 1–6. doi:10.4324/9781003393849. ISBN   978-1-003-39384-9.
5. Cubellis, Michelle A.; Evans, Douglas N.; Fera, Adam G. (2019). "Sex Offender Stigma: An Exploration of Vigilantism against Sex Offenders" . Deviant Behavior. 40 (2): 225–239. doi:10.1080/01639625.2017.1420459. ISSN   0163-9625.
6. Eyssen, A. B. (2001). Does Community Notification for Sex Offenders Violate the Eighth Amendment's Prohibition against Cruel and Unusual Punishment-A Focus on Vigilantism Resulting from Megan's Law . Mary's LJ, 33, 101.
7. Hall, Maggie (January 10, 2019). "Sex offender registries don't prevent re-offending (and vigilante justice is real)". The Conversation. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
8. Tewksbury, Richard (2005). "Collateral Consequences of Sex Offender Registration" . Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice. 21 (1): 67–81. doi:10.1177/1043986204271704. ISSN   1043-9862.
9. Johnson, John (March 30, 2025). "Violence Grows Among Pedophile-Hunting Vigilantes". Newser. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
10. Aufrichtig, Aliza; Ho, Joyce; Reneau, Natalie; Taylor, Rumsey (March 26, 2025). "Online 'Pedophile Hunters' Are Growing More Violent — and Going Viral". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved December 8, 2025.
11. "Father of Kidnapped Son gets Revenge-1984 Remember those moments on TV?-Jeffrey Doucet bites the bullet". Toluna. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved December 30, 2025.
12. "Ellie Nesler killed son's accused molester in courtroom shooting". The Associated Press. December 29, 2008.
13. "Court hears the details of Geoghan's murder". Boston Globe . Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC. January 12, 2006. Retrieved December 30, 2025.
14. "Pedophile Is Slain in Va. Prison". The Washington Post. January 15, 2004. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
15. Lattin, Don (January 11, 2005). "Murder-suicide case in desert evangelical sex cult". San Francisco Chronicle . Archived from the original on March 8, 2005. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
16. "Victim finds freedom in forgiveness". Spokesman.com. December 29, 2007. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
17. "Sex offenders' killer who died in prison expressed a death wish". The Seattle Times. April 25, 2007. Retrieved December 14, 2025.
18. "Sex Offender Murder Suspect Kills Self - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. April 17, 2006. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
19. PRESS, BY DAVID CRARY THE ASSOCIATED. "Sex offender registry laws questioned after two killings". The Star Banner. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
20. "Police: Vigilante justice led to unintended death". NBC News. September 15, 2007. Retrieved December 14, 2025.
21. Hall, Maggie (January 10, 2019). "Sex offender registries don't prevent re-offending (and vigilante justice is real)". The Conversation. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
22. Friedman, Emily. "Teen Confesses To Molesting Sister, Dad Executes Him". ABC News. Retrieved December 30, 2025.
23. "Washington Man Who Killed Two Rapists Gets Life Sentence". ABC News. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
24. Baldacci, Eliott C. McLaughlin,Marlena (May 7, 2014). "Neo-Nazis feign remorse, taunt family of murdered sex offender". CNN. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
25. Zozaya, José (July 14, 2021). "'Vigilante' convicted of murdering sex offender gets 40-70 years in prison". KETV. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
26. Andrews, Aspen; Powell, Akim (August 24, 2024). "Woman with 'unrestrained hatred' for child predators killed, dismembered alleged wanted sex offender, prosecutor says". WVIR-TV. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
27. Wallace, Randy (February 1, 2024). "Houston crime: 24-year-old man allegedly murders 37-year-old convicted sex offender". FOX 26 Houston. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
28. WKRC (September 24, 2025). "'It should be cool': Man allegedly found pedophile online, posed as accountant to kill him". KOMO. Retrieved December 14, 2025.
29. "'Vigilante' Attack in New Jersey Is Linked to Sex-Offenders Law (Published 1995)". January 11, 1995. Archived from the original on May 4, 2025. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
30. "P'BURG MEN PLEAD GUILTY IN ATTACK ASSAULT STEMMED FROM MEGAN'S LAW NOTIFICATION". The Morning Call. June 10, 1995. Archived from the original on December 14, 2025. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
31. "Neighbor Admits Firing Gun Into Home of Paroled Rapist". NY Times.
32. Press, The Associated (April 19, 2006). "N.H. leaving registry up". Lewiston Sun Journal. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
33. Writer, Staff. "N.H. felon 'understands' killer's motivation". Foster's Daily Democrat. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
34. "Woman who cut man's penis avoids jail". The Indianapolis Star.
35. "Family of Inmate Who Allegedly Attacked Jared Fogle Says 'He Would Do it Again'". NBC Chicago. March 17, 2016. Retrieved January 17, 2026.
36. Baird, Austin (August 3, 2016). "Man charged for attacking sex offenders greeted as a hero by some". Alaskas News Source. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
37. Hanlon, Tegan. "Anchorage man who attacked sex offenders sentenced to 23 years in prison". Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
38. "Cain Velasquez charged with attempted murder, more after police say he targeted accused molester". MMA Junkie. March 2, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2020.
39. "Reports: Cain Velasquez allegedly shot at man accused of molesting a relative possibly '100 times'". MMA Junkie. March 2, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
40. BakersfieldNow Staff (April 7, 2025). "Former UFC fighter Cain Velasquez sentenced to five years, held in Wasco State Prison". Bakersfield Now. Retrieved April 9, 2025.