U.S. Marshals Operation Boo Dat Concludes with the Recovery of 3 Missing/Endangered Children and 28 Arrests

New Orleans, LA –The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) New Orleans Task Force sponsored its annual Operation Boo Dat from October 22, 2023, to January 13, 2024, resulting in 28 arrests, 14 of which were for felony sex offender registration violations. Three missing/endangered teenagers were also recovered during the operation and tied to the arrests of two unrelated adult male subjects. Six fugitives were arrested during the operation on felony warrants related to open sex-based offenses.  

Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans (GNO) provided critical support during the operation to include a media release photo spread of 26 sex offender fugitives. The photo spread resulted in the arrests of six of the photo spread targets. The 20 remaining targets are still at large, and Crimestoppers GNO rewards are available for information leading to their arrest.    

Highlights of Operation Boo Dat 2024 include:

• The arrest in December 2023 of registered sex offender Dean Kelly on a NOPD (New Orleans Police Department) warrant alleging sexual battery and attempted third-degree rape, as well as new charges related to sex offender registration violations.  Kelly’s arrest received local media attention as he was a well-known New Orleans area model featured in an early 1990s world famous rock band’s music video. Kelly has a lengthy history of legal issues with the NOPD related to sex-based offenses.    
• The Oct. 27, 2023, arrest of Troy Riley wanted by the JPSO Special Victims Section for a felony warrant for first-degree rape and two counts of sexual battery (victim under the age of 13). A collateral lead was sent to the by the USMS Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force by the USMS New Orleans Task Force, and Riley was located and arrested in Raeford, North Carolina.  
• The Nov. 7, 2023, arrest of Edmund Spillman Jr. by law enforcement officers from the JPSO after Spillman fought with them and resisted arrest. Spillman is a Tier 3 sex offender with sex-based convictions in Ohio.  He had been featured on the Crimestoppers GNO Operation Boo Dat photo spread, and when JPSO deputies encountered him at an address on Central Ave in Jefferson Parish he provided a fake name and then attempted to flee before having to be physically restrained and then arrested.  
• The Nov. 21, 2023, recovery of a 7-year-old female in Baton Rouge by the USMS Middle District of Louisiana Task Force and USMS New Orleans Task Force. The girl had been listed as kidnapped out of New Orleans, and an Amber Alert was issued for the child and a domestic violence related warrant for an adult male.  The child’s mother was in a relationship with the adult kidnapper and the adult male was alleged to have had a domestic altercation and physically assaulted the mother and then took the child and was supposedly fleeing the state. The adult male was found with the child hiding in a locked bathroom when USMS responded to the Baton Rouge address where they were hiding.    
• The Jan. 3 arrest of Burnell Emile McCann Jr. on a NOPD felony warrant for failure to register as a sex offender, as well as an active Harrison County, Mississippi, felony warrant for failure to appear in court on a pending FTR case. McCann is a Tier 2 sex offender with an original conviction involving a minor. He was featured on the Crimestoppers GNO photo spread, and USMS New Orleans Task Force located him at a residence on Wilson Avenue in New Orleans, where he surrendered after refusing to come out for a brief period. He had been actively hiding from the USMS New Orleans Task Force and had been a fugitive since February 2023.    

During the operation sex offender compliance checks were also conducted in Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Tammany parishes. These compliance checks require law enforcement officers to physically visit the sex offender’s reported address of residence to verify that the offender still lives at the provided address.  Countless hours of follow-up investigative work are often required during and after a compliance check.  

The USMS Sex Offender Investigations Branch provided the funding to pay for state and local overtime work done during the operation related to both enforcement and compliance checks.  

“Continuing the USMS’s sex offender and missing children’s mission is a vital component in the reduction of sexual crimes,” said Enix Smith III, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Louisiana. “Thank you to Crimestoppers GNO, along with multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies for your proactive work.”
   
Operation Boo Dat represents an annual partnership between New Orleans Police Department, Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, Louisiana State Police, and the USMS New Orleans Task Force.

Any information can be provided to the U.S. Marshals Service at (504) 589-6872 or via email at usms.wanted@usdoj.gov. Crimestoppers GNO may also be contacted with tips at (504) 822-1111.