Fugitive Ill. schools chief caught after 19 years

DANVILLE, Ill. — A former school superintendent convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy is in custody in central Illinois after nearly 20 years on the run.

Authorities say 60-year-old Dennis Catron was booked in Danville on Monday.

The former Hoopeston alderman and superintendent of the Ludlow School District was arrested outside his Bangkok home last month on a fugitive-from-justice warrant.

Catron was first arrested in 1991 on charges that he sexually abused a teenage boy. He jumped bond after that arrest. In July 1991, he turned himself in, posted $5,000 bond and fled again.

Authorities believe he's been living in Thailand since his disappearance in 1992.

Vermilion County sheriff's Capt. Rod Kaag says Catron will have a local hearing.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Catron has an attorney.