Decades-long search ends with an arrest

BONITA, Calif. - Neighbors in a well-to-do section of this San Diego suburb knew him as Frank Szeles, a friendly Cub Scouts leader who frequently gave swimming lessons to young children in his backyard pool.

The federal agents who arrested him last week knew him by a different name: "Mr. Wonder," the host of a popular children's television show who vanished decades ago amid allegations that he sexually abused several kids during a camping retreat in central Louisiana.

The man who faced a San Diego judge on Wednesday denied he is the 76-year-old fugitive named Frank John Selas III who allegedly fled to Brazil in 1979 after Louisiana authorities secured a warrant for his arrest.

Back in Louisiana, Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office investigators are convinced the right man is in custody. Officials in California are suddenly facing fears that Selas could have preyed on other children during the 37 years that he eluded capture.

"It's absolutely shocking the level of access that this guy had to children, even now," said Steve Jurman, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal in San Diego. "If there's a playbook for pedophiles, he checked off every single box."

Jurman said Selas had moved to California by 1985 and legally changed his last name to Szeles in 1992. Investigators in Louisiana believe Selas lived in other places - including Chicago; Darien, Conn.; South Royalton, Vt.; and Sheffield, Mass. - after he returned from South America in the early 1980s.

The man known as Szeles once served as a Cub Scouts pack leader in Bonita but was removed from the position several years ago for failing to comply with the organization's "youth protection policies and procedures," the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement. The statement says a parent had made an unspecified complaint that didn't relate to scouting.

Szeles also was removed from "all positions related to children" at his Mormon congregation in San Diego for failing to comply with the church's "child protection policies," according to Eric Hawkins, a Utah-based spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A company called Szeles Enterprises organized Cub Scouts day camps, swimming lessons, and Saturday field trips for boys as young as 5. Jurman said investigators are confident the website belongs to the suspect.

The Chula Vista Elementary School District is reviewing whether Szeles had connections with any of its 45 schools, which enroll roughly 30,000 students. A flier promoting Szeles Enterprises' programs for kids said the district was distributing it "as a public service."

Selas' former coworkers at KNOE-TV in north Louisiana remember him as a strange, standoffish man who didn't fit in at the Monroe-based station, but nobody saw any sinister motives behind his "Mr. Wonder" creation.

His children's show was a hit. It started as a weekly program but went daily as its popularity grew. Selas presided over races and other contests between teams of children bused to the station from local schools.

The station didn't sponsor the children's camping trip that Selas organized in June 1979, but it allowed him to promote it during his show.

Investigators claim Selas sexually abused at least seven children during the camping trip to Kisatchie National Forest in central Louisiana. After parents complained about the alleged abuse, Rapides Parish authorities obtained a warrant for his arrest on two counts of obscene behavior with a juvenile.

One of the detectives assigned to the case was William Earl Hilton, now Rapides Parish's elected sheriff. Hilton recently asked the U.S. Marshals Service to take a fresh look at finding Selas. They found the man known as Szeles in California about two weeks ago.

He remains in jail without bail. He is due in court Feb. 11 for a hearing to establish his identity.