Families Let Sex Offenders Into Homes

April 20, 2005 -- -- The Florida woman whose ex-boyfriend allegedly strangled her 13-year-old daughter didn't know anything about the man's history as a sex offender, other than what he told her. And she wasn't the only one.

Many people in the rural community of Ruskin do not have Internet connections, and thus do not have easy access to the state's sex offender registry. So they may have been unaware of David Onstott's history.

Kelly May Lunde had previously dated Onstott. In his confession, he said he had gone to her trailer home looking for her and ended up killing her daughter, Sarah, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office.

"So she knew he had a criminal history, she knew it was involving what he had described to her as date rape, and beyond that, I don't think she had a lot of information," Sheriff David Gee said, referring to Lunde.

Sarah's slaying, coming weeks after another Florida girl, 9-year-old Jennifer Lunsford, and a 10-year-old Iowa girl, Jetseta Gage, were allegedly abducted and killed by sex offenders, has raised the call for reform of the sex offender registries.

In each case, critics have pointed to what they say are problems with the registries or how the laws on tracking registered sex offenders are enforced. Onstott, for example, had been arrested for failing to register just weeks earlier, but then had been released.

All 50 states have some form of sex offender registry, in line with guidelines established by Congress under the 1994 Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexual Violent Offender Registration Program. In 1996, Megan's Law, named for a New Jersey girl who was sexually abused and murdered by a convicted sex offender, amended the act to set up guidelines for disclosure of the information on the registries to the public.

What information can be disclosed and to whom has been a controversial issue ever since, and states have chosen -- or been forced by the courts -- to deal with the issue in a variety of ways.

Information about the sex offender registry in your state can be obtained by calling the Parents for Megan's Law hot line at 888-ASK-PSML (888-275-7365). The group received a grant from the federal government to set up the hot line.

Information about the registries and about how to keep children safe from sexual predators can also be found at the Web site of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

There is also a national list, the National Sex Offenders Registry, coordinated and maintained by the FBI's Crimes Against Children Unit, which is based on information supplied by the states.

Most states provide statewide Internet access to lists, including names, addresses, photographs and criminal records of at least the so-called Level III, or high-risk, convicted sex offenders.

In some states, such as Washington and Oregon, local law enforcement is directed to alert the community when a Level III offender moves into the neighborhood. Police there put out news releases and meet with neighborhood watch groups and school officials when a Level III offender moves into a community.