By Mindy Lucas
A former area firefighter wanted on charges of soliciting sex from a 13-year-old girl has been arrested, officials say.
Brandon Thomsen, 46, has been arrested by authorities and is being held in the Lowndes County jail in Georgia, according to a statement issued by Beaufort Police Department spokesman Capt. George Erdel Thursday night.
The department had learned of Thomsen’s presence at a medical facility in Georgia on Dec. 6 after multiple law enforcement agencies began looking for him earlier in the month.
“We had hoped to quickly pick him up, but he fled from his residence prior to the arrest warrants being issued,” Erdel said earlier in the week.
An “active, ongoing and parallel fugitive investigation” was conducted with the help of officers from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) in an attempt to locate Thomsen.
Thomsen’s name was also placed in the NCIC, or National Crime Information Center’s system and a “BOLO” or “Be on the Lookout” was issued to area law enforcement agencies in an attempt to find him.
Why Thomsen was at the facility or what he is being treated for has not been released due to patient privacy concerns, authorities have said.
According to his Columbia attorney, Thomsen will not fight extradition, Thursday’s statement said.
Once he is brought back to Beaufort, he will be booked on charges of one count of criminal solicitation of a minor and one count of disseminating obscene material to a person under 18, the statement also said.
The Burton Fire District announced on Tuesday that Thomsen was no longer employed by the district. The announcement followed another earlier in the month that he had been placed on “immediate suspension” by the district after it was notified that warrants had been taken out for his arrest.
Check back here as this story continues to develop.
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Burton firefighter wanted on charges for soliciting sex from 13-year-old
