Anthony Lennon was named one of Oklahoma’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives before he was arrested in October 2025 on child pornography charges. On the latest episode of Us Weekly’s Uncovered, investigative journalist Kristin Thorne spoke to the City of Moore, Oklahoma Police Department Chief Todd Gibson about Lennon’s “staged” abduction and the 13-year search for him.
The episode began with Thorne explaining that, according to investigators, Lennon went by the alias Justin Phillips while he hid from the Oklahoma police for 13 years. He was first convicted of having child porn in 2008-2009, and then, police said, several years later, in 2012, an undercover detective caught him sending explicit pictures and videos of little kids in a chat room.
Gibson said that Lennon’s involvement in the chat room made him pop back onto “law enforcement’s radar.”
The police department started working on getting a warrant for Lennon’s computer when they got a call about a disturbance at a local motel. Thorne explained that the motel happened to be where Lennon worked the front desk overnight.
“We get called to a robbery, potential kidnapping, from the Super 8 Motel manager,” Gibson said, adding that the manager showed up after the night shift and noticed that it looked like somebody had “robbed and gone through and rifled through the files.”
He said that there was food “sitting uneaten out on the counter as if [Lennon] were startled or somehow interrupted” during a meal. Additionally, police found “blood out on the walkway next to the stairs,” bloody footprints and Lennon’s name badge at the crime scene.
Authorities initially thought that they were dealing with a violent abduction or robbery gone wrong, though everything changed when they confirmed with the motel manager that Lennon – a man police already had their eyes on – was working the night of the incident.
The detectives then took blood from the crime scene and sent it to a crime lab, where it was confirmed that the blood belonged to Lennon.
Police never believed that Lennon died in the motel incident and ultimately discovered, they said, that he fled to Canton, New York, where he attended college and worked at another hotel under the alias of Justin Phillips.
Gibson said that police “did some surveillance” and “got actual eyes on him,” which left them convinced that Phillips was actually Lennon.
“So they go out there, they ultimately end up making contact with him as he’s coming out of a store, placing him in handcuffs, placing him under arrest for the crimes here in Oklahoma. And the entire time, he is denying that he is Anthony Lennon,” Gibson said.
Gibson added that investigators believe Lennon tried to “throw off the fingerprint identification system” in order to avoid being caught by burning or damaging the pads of his fingers. “Obviously, we know who he is. We believe we know who he is, and then we absolutely confirm his identity through fingerprints,” he said.
However, Gibson said that Lennon will still insist he is “not Anthony Lennon.”
“You’re a coward, and you don’t want to stand up for what you did, and you got caught,” Gibson said of Lennon. “You can play your game as long as you want to play your game, and you can continue to say you’re Justin Phillips, or whoever it is you are.”
Gibson said that the “bottom line is you are a person that committed crimes in Oklahoma against children that were appalling, and you’re gonna stand in front of the courts for that.”
Gibson also reflected on the 13-year hunt for Lennon, explaining why police never gave up on bringing him into custody.
“For our police officers and our detectives to stick with it, along with the Marshals Service, to stick with it,” he said. “They never put it on the back burner. They’ve been working it consistently for 13 years. It’s a long time. Your kid was born, and now they’re a teenager, you know, during that time.”
According to court records, Lennon is represented by a public defender. Public defenders do not comment on cases to the media.
