{"id":195889,"date":"2026-03-18T05:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195889\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:02:12","slug":"fugitive-florida-sex-offender-captured-in-cuba-trying-to-escape-u-s-charges-lcso-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195889\/","title":{"rendered":"Fugitive Florida sex offender captured in Cuba trying to escape U.S. charges: LCSO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Brief<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A sex offender who skipped a court date was caught in Cuba trying to avoid charges in America, according to the Lee County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Worden Bourn was arrested in December 2025, after a missing juvenile was found intoxicated on his boat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Members of the U.S. Marshals Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force got Bourn from Cuba and returned him to the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">FORT MYERS, Fla. &#8211; A sex offender who skipped a Fort Myers court date was caught in Cuba trying to avoid charges in America, according to the Lee County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The backstory<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Worden Bourn, a registered sex offender, was arrested in December 2025 after a missing juvenile was found intoxicated on his sailboat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Investigators said Bourn gave the juvenile drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">READ:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/sheriff-grady-judd-joins-other-law-enforcement-leaders-criticizing-federal-mass-deportation-efforts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sheriff Grady Judd blasts media reports that he criticizes federal mass deportation efforts: &#039;Simply not true&#039;;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Sheriff Grady Judd blasts media reports that he criticizes federal mass deportation efforts&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Sheriff Grady Judd blasts media reports that he criticizes federal mass deportation efforts: &#8216;Simply not true&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After his arrest, members of the Sexual Offender &amp; Predator charged him with four sex offender violations after doing a detailed review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In February 2026, a warrant was issued for Bourn\u2019s arrest after he skipped a scheduled court date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The fugitive warrants unit with LCSO learned he bought a new boat and planned to escape to Costa Rica.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Dig deeper<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On February 26, 2026, Cuban officials came in contact with Bourn in Cuban waters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They said Bourn claimed his boat ran out of fuel and asked for help to continue his trip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">READ:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/florida-woman-accused-shooting-boyfriend-while-he-slept-dismembering-his-body-burying-remains-yard\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Florida woman accused of shooting sleeping boyfriend, tried dismembering him and burying remains in yard: BCSO;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Florida woman accused of shooting sleeping boyfriend, tried dismembering him and burying remains in yard&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Florida woman accused of shooting sleeping boyfriend, tried dismembering him and burying remains in yard: BCSO<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He was detained on outstanding warrants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Monday, members of the U.S. Marshals Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force got Bourn from Cuba and returned him to the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">What&#8217;s next<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Bourn was booked in the Miami-Dade County Jail, awaiting extradition to Lee County. Upon his return, Bourn will be charged with additional sex offender violations for leaving the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Source<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This article was written with information posted on social media by the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief A sex offender who skipped a court date was caught in Cuba trying to avoid charges&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[90915,1016,28,30,29,356,90913,90914,3034,50647],"class_list":["post-195889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-bourn","tag-cuba","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-lee-county","tag-lee-county-sheriff39s-office","tag-registered-sex-offender","tag-sex-offender","tag-worden-bourn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}