Estes' Extreme Alleged Crimes

It's something cops deal with every day -- but it's not always this extreme. For law enforcement everywhere, dealing with sex offenders is part of the job. Sex criminals are everywhere, taking advantage of children and subjecting them to horrors beyond their worst nightmares. But US Marshals and Macon County police in North Carolina say Gerald Estes is one of the most extreme types of sex offenders -- due to the sheer number of victims they suspect he has, and what they say he did to two innocent little boys left in his care by their unsuspecting mother.

Cops say Gerald Estes moved to Franklin, NC from Fla. in the early 90s. He'd owned Estes Jewelers in Miami and spent most of his life there, but eventually moved north and retired.

Estes was a heavy drinker, according to cops, and it was always getting him into trouble. He'd been pulled over for drunken driving, and would even occasionally check himself into rehab programs. But cops say getting clean wasn't his only motivation for joining the rehab organizations -- he was also searching for victims.

Estes' Arrest

Cops say Estes likes to prey on the innocent -- and he trusted rehab centers to deliver naive, broken-down individuals who he thought would be easily manipulated. But according to cops, Estes really preferred children -- and had gotten away with victimizing at least two little boys in 2003.

Cops say the children were Estes' next door neighbor's -- a mother who trusted Estes enough to leave her children in his care while she worked. According to police, the children were too scared to tell their mother what was really going on -- that they were being forced to participate in disgusting sex acts and even to watch as Estes raped his own dog.

Cops don't know for sure how long this abuse had been going on, but they say it stopped when Estes checked himself into a rehab program at a halfway house. There, cops say he got a little too comfortable -- and starting flaunting polaroid photographs of him raping the two boys.

As soon as cops got wind of the alleged crimes, they began an intense investigation and arrested Estes. During their investigation, cops made a shocking discovery. According to police, sewn into the cushions of Estes' couch were multiple polaroids of him raping different children. Cops say Estes refused to tell cops who the children were, or in which state they were taken, but admitted to raping his neighbor's children and his dog. Estes was arrested -- but a judge set bail, and Estes fled.

Clean Breath, Dirty Fugitive

Cops are continuing to interview and question everyone they believe might know where Estes is hiding -- and investigators say that determination may be paying off.

Cops received several similar bits of information from various sources that Estes drinks cheap mouthwash from dollar stores to get high. Knowing this, investigators hit up dollar stores around Franklin on June 23, 2005, and showed store managers Estes' photograph. It turns out the managers recognized Estes -- and one even said the fugitive had been in the store two weeks earlier -- buying mouthwash.

Accused Sex Offender Murdered For Alleged Crime

North Carolina cops say Gerald Estes was likely killed within a week after bonding out of jail.

Estes was accused of molesting children, and police say convicted murderer Christopher Lunz knew of the charges and claimed he took justice into his own hands.

Lunz is a self-proclaimed serial killer of child molesters. In 2009, while serving a life sentence for the murder of his father, Lunz sent a letter to N.C. police.

In the letter Lunz described where he picked Estes up and confessed to murdering him. Based on evidence, police believe the location to be accurate.

Lunz also confessed to other murders and offered to come to N.C. to lead police to evidence.

But when police tried to contact Lunz, they were too late.

Cops say the night before N.C. detectives called the Fla. prison, Lunz killed a convicted child molester and stabbed two other inmates, then killed himself.

Police say an accomplice in the murder of Lunz's father claims to have witnessed Estes' murder and passed a polygraph.

Cops say Estes has not been spotted anywhere in the country since the day Lunz claims to have picked him up.

If he is alive, health issues would require Estes to seek medical attention.

Though there is no body or physical evidence, N.C. police believe Lunz's confession is accurate and consider Estes deceased.