JACKSON CO. via SALINE CO.—The Wyoming convicted sex offender who once was charged with a similar crime in Saline County was non-compliant with the Illinois Sex Offender Registry as of press time, July 12…and had been for several days.
And authorities across Jackson, Williamson, and even Saline counties are looking for Jordan McGuire, this after he failed to show at a hearing for a name change petition in Jackson County in Murphysboro on June 29.
On that day, the name change was denied—an extremely rare occurrence, as there is seldom anyone who opposes such a thing as a name change for a person wishing to do so.
However, that’s exactly what happened, since the week before, in a hearing for the very purpose of objection, Judge Charles Grace listened patiently as a group of concerned citizens, knowing who Jordan Lee McGuire was and why he wanted the name change (it wasn’t just for purposes of “show business,” a common tact for many to take when doing so; it was to evade the massive internet identification that “Jordan Lee McGuire” returns on a google search), explained their purpose of objection.
The group brought with them copious documentation showing that McGuire, having been convicted of a sexual battery misdemeanor in Laramie, Wyoming, in May of this year, was simply trying to escape into the persona of the chosen “Christian Sawyer Thomas Hanson,” the name he was seeking.
On June 29, Grace made his ruling: No name change.
But McGuire wasn’t even present at that ruling.
Instead, he’d been informed by the state of Wyoming that, since he was a sex offender in their state, he was going to have to register as one in the state of Illinois, too…and as a result, he was nowhere to be found.
McGuire had, for the purposes of Jackson County court, listed an address as an apartment in Carbondale.
However, sources close to McGuire indicated that he wasn’t living in said apartment, which would explain why county officials, making inquiry into why McGuire hadn’t yet registered, couldn’t find him in Carbondale.
And, further to that…they couldn’t find him anywhere.
It’s been reported that McGuire, whose last Illinois residence was in Carterville, is actually hiding out in Williamson County, in Herrin at his parents’ house.
As of press time, McGuire hadn’t yet been found there, either. And now, he’s listed on the state’s sex offender registry as “non-compliant.”
McGuire escaped a sex crime conviction after a 2007 incident involving some Saline County boys in school at Southeastern Illinois College outside of Harrisburg.
He escaped same in 2014, after being charged in 2012 in Vanderburgh County in Indiana with a sex-related crime against a young man there when McGuire was a student teacher at a high school in Evansville; a jury found him not guilty because the victim ended up not willing to testify and the state hadn’t met its burden.
The Wyoming case ended in a plea in May, and McGuire apparently believed he could come back to Illinois and begin life anew as Chris Hanson.
That, thanks to the diligent work of people concerned that a sex offender might slip through the cracks, didn’t happen.
However, it’s entirely possible that in a few weeks, the next report on McGuire will be that of a Class 4 felony Failure to Register…which will mean a new mugshot over the old worn-out one everyone’s using from Wyoming.