Story highlights Eric Hartwell is a convicted sex offender who was at a group home 
 
 He appears to have cut off his ankle monitor and fled 
 
 He was caught in Virginia 
 
 Fugitive Colorado sex offender Eric Hartwell, who apparently cut off his ankle monitor and left a group home, has been apprehended in Norfolk, Virginia, the U.S. Marshals Service said. 
 
 A fugitive warrant was requested minutes after Hartwell, 51, walked away from Independence House in Denver a week ago. 
 
 Hartwell was convicted of raping a child in 1991 and of attempted indecent liberties in 1996, according to the Colorado sex offender registry. 
 
 He was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised parole by a federal judge in Texas in March 2010 after he was found guilty of failing to register as a sex offender, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release. 
 
 Hartwell was placed in a halfway house in Washington state in March 2009 for failure to register as a sex offender, but after just a week there he cut off his leg monitor and fled to Texas, according to the Justice Department. 

 Convicted sex offender Eric Hartwell was captured by U.S. Marshals at this Motel 6 in Norfolk, Va. on Feb. 28, 2014. (Photo: WAVY) 
 
 NORFOLK, Va. –Wanted sex offender Eric Hartwell, who escaped earlier in February, was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service in Norfolk, Va. Friday, a source told FOX31 Denver’s Julie Hayden. 
 
 Hayden also learned that U.S. Marshals tracked Hartwell to a Motel 6 in Norfolk, where they kicked in his door and arrested him. 
 
 Friday morning, U.S. Marshals confirmed the capture of Hartwell at a motel off of Military Highway in Norfolk shortly after 9 a.m. MST. 
 
 “We have been relentlessly pursuing Hartwell, day and night, as he fled across the country,” said U.S. Marshals Chief Deputy Kenneth Deal. “When a dangerous predator is on the loose we don’t stop. Public safety is always our main concern.” 
 
 The information came in a day after an alert was issued to students at Eastern Washington University/Cheney Thursday regarding possible sightings of Hartwell in town and on campus. 
 
 Hartwell escaped from a Denver halfway house on Feb. 21 after reportedly cutting off his ankle monitor, and both Colorado and federal law enforcement authorities have been searching for the convicted sex offender ever since. 
 
 Colorado Department of Corrections spokesman Roger Hudson had told FOX31 Denver that Hartwell was on duel supervision when he walked away from Community Corrections on Feb. 21. 
 
 Hudson said Hartwell has been on parole through Colorado since Dec. 20 for failing to register as a sex offender and was on probation with federal law enforcement for previous sex crimes. 

 Local News 
 
 Eric E. Hartwell (Colorado Department of Corrections) 
 
 A convicted child sex offender who fled Colorado after shedding an ankle monitor was captured Friday morning on the East Coast. 
 
 Eric Hartwell, 51, was taken into custody at a motel in Norfolk, Va., by the U.S. Marshals Service, according to a media release from the U.S. Justice Department. 
 
 Hartwell took off from a Denver halfway house on Feb. 21, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. 
 
 Deputy marshals and other officers broke down a motel room door after Hartwell refused to open it. He was taken into custody without further incident. 
 
 In 1991, Hartwell was convicted in Snohomish County, Wash., of child rape, and in 1996 of attempting to sexually assault a hitchhiker in Skagit County, Wash. 
 
 He failed to register as a sex offender in Washington. 
 
 When caught, Hartwell was placed on community supervision, with a condition that he be placed in a halfway house with electronic monitoring. In 2009, Hartwell cut off a GPS bracelet in Washington. 
 
 He was arrested in Clear Creek County in August 2011 for failing to register as a sex offender and was sentenced in October 2011 to three years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. 
 
 Over the years, Hartwell also failed to register in Texas as a sex offender. 
 
 Last week, a warrant for Hartwell was requested by the Department of Corrections 22 minutes after his ankle monitor was removed in Colorado. 
 
 The Colorado Department of Corrections is currently seeking about 700 "parole absconders," according to state records. Absconders are parolees who change their place of residence without prior notification to their parole officer, who fail to report as directed or whose whereabouts are otherwise unknown.
– A child rapist who escaped from custody in Denver last week made it across the country before being captured today, reports CNN. Eric Hartwell apparently cut off his ankle monitor and fled a halfway house, reports Fox 31 Denver. Authorities finally caught up with the 51-year-old at a motel in Norfolk, Va. Marshals had to bust down the door to arrest him, reports the Denver Post. Hartwell was convicted of raping a child in 1991 and "attempted indecent liberties" again in 1996.