{"id":382251,"date":"2026-01-01T21:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T21:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/382251\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T21:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T21:51:09","slug":"canada-wide-warrant-issued-for-sex-offender-who-didnt-return-to-vancouver-halfway-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/382251\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada-wide warrant issued for sex offender who didn&#8217;t return to Vancouver halfway house"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 1 minute<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Police say a Canada-wide warrant has been issued for a convicted sex offender who did not return to his halfway house in Vancouver on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p>The Vancouver Police Department said in a news release that Dean Robert Merrick , 58, left the halfway house in Vancouver&#8217;s Downtown Eastside just before 9:30 a.m. PT on Dec. 31 for an appointment on Commercial Drive. He did not return. <\/p>\n<p>Merrick served an 18-year sentence for sexual offences, the department said. <\/p>\n<p>Police say he is bald with brown hair that is greying on the sides and has blue eyes. He has multiple tattoos, including a flag and a cowboy on his left arm. He is six-foot-two and weighs around 200 pounds, according to police.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators believe he may be wearing a black jacket, white T-shirt, green cargo pants, a black ball cap and grey-and-black running shoes. <\/p>\n<p>Anyone who sees Merrick or knows of his whereabouts is asked to call 911. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 1 minute The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-382251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}