New Fugitive & Widget Added

New Top Ten Fugitive
And a New Tool to Help Find Him

11/29/08

(Note: Harper was captured in Wyoming on July 23, 2009.)

A truck driver and ranch hand wanted for allegedly having sexual relations with two young girls has been added to our Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and we are offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information directly leading to his arrest.

Edward Eugene Harper, who has been on the run for 14 years, is 62 years old and may be doing ranching work in Montana and Wyoming. He was arrested in Mississippi in 1994 and charged with sex crimes for attacks on the three-year-old and eight-year-old girls, who lived in the neighborhood. After posting bail, Harper skipped town and was later charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

To help spread the word about this case, we are launching a new “widget” that can be added to your website or blog. This interactive tool features information on all Top Ten fugitives, along with continuous feeds for FBI news and stories that are automatically updated several times a week. “The new widget links you to our latest video and multimedia content,” said Jonathan Cox, an analyst in our Office of Public Affairs, “and includes easy to use share buttons so you can add it effortlessly to almost any website, including Facebook, MySpace, and other social media networking sites.”

Our first set of widgets—introduced last September—now appear on Internet sites all over the world. The technology is similar to that used in stock tickers, weather updates, and other free widgets offered on the Internet.

We need your help finding Edward Eugene Harper. He is 5 feet, 10 inches tall; weighs 165 pounds; and has hazel eyes and gray-brown hair. Harper is said to consider himself a member of the extremist group Montana Freemen, and he has family ties in Arkansas. He may go by the names Eddie Eugene Trimue, Eddie Harper, Ed Harmon, or Edward Trimue.

“What’s disturbing about this case,” says Jackson, Mississippi Special Agent Ryan Arton, who has followed leads on Harper around the globe, “is how he has been able to lay so low for 14 years, even after his case was featured on national TV shows like Oprah.” Arton adds, “Harper deserves to be found and returned to DeSoto County, Mississippi, so that justice can be served.”

If you have any information that may be helpful to our investigation, please contact our Jackson office or submit a tip electronically on our website. Harper should be considered dangerous.

A few facts about our “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” program:

...Launched on March 14, 1950;
...491 fugitives added to the list so far;
...460 captured (nearly 94 percent success rate);
...Thirteen fugitives apprehended in Mexico, the most of any country outside the U.S.;
...Nearly one third (151) located through citizen cooperation.

For a full list of the fugitives and missing persons we’re looking for, please visit our Wanted by the FBI webpage.