Two men who spent months on Texas' 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders list are now behind bars after separate arrests just one day apart in opposite corners of the state. Elliott Thomas Reed, 40, was taken into custody at a residence in Benbrook, while 56-year-old Abelardo Garza was arrested at a residence in Brownsville. Both men are now in Texas Department of Public Safety custody following the arrests.
Reed's capture came last Wednesday in Benbrook, near Fort Worth, when Texas DPS Criminal Investigations Division Special Agents worked alongside officers from the Benbrook Police Department and the Fort Worth Police Department, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. He had been wanted since April, and as reported by KEYE, he was subject to a warrant for a parole violation. Reed had previously been sentenced to four years in prison for sexual assault of a child, and the outlet notes he has racked up convictions since 2005 for drug charges, assault, evading arrest, weapons charges, and sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.
How Reed Slipped Off the Radar
DPS records show Reed had been released on parole from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in October 2025 before absconding from a Dallas-based transitional center in early April. That disappearance triggered an April 4 parole violation warrant and, weeks later, a May 22 Dallas County warrant for failure to register, per the same account from the state agency. Prior to his arrest, DPS had listed Reed as having extensive regional ties across North Texas, spanning Tarrant, Dallas, and Hood counties and the cities of Benbrook, Fort Worth, Arlington, Dallas, and Lipan.
Last Thursday, investigators closed in on Garza roughly 350 miles south, arresting him at a Brownsville residence. That operation involved the Texas DPS Criminal Investigations Division, the Brownsville Police Department, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Special Response Team, and the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Fugitive Task Force, according to the state agency's account. Garza had been wanted since June 2026 for failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements, according to DPS.
A Decades-Old Case That Never Fully Closed
Garza's case traces back to 2001, when he was convicted in Cameron County of three counts of aggravated sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl and received deferred adjudication with eight years of probation, according to DPS. As part of that sentence, he was required to register quarterly as a sex offender for life. But state records show he was arrested repeatedly by Brownsville Police starting in 2005 for registration non-compliance, a pattern that stretched across two decades before his most recent disappearance triggered his placement on the Most Wanted list.
That long arc mirrors a broader challenge facing Texas' registry enforcement system. Under Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements is prosecuted as its own felony, with severity scaling to the underlying crime — ranging from a state jail felony up to a second-degree felony punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison for repeat offenders, according to the L&L Law Group.
Statewide Push Behind the Captures
Both men's names had been added to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders list, a roster managed through the Texas Crime Stoppers program, which operates under the Governor's Public Safety Office and works with DPS investigators and local agencies to flag high-threat fugitives, per DPS. Tipsters who help locate people on the list are guaranteed anonymity under state law, receiving tracking numbers rather than having their names attached to submitted tips made by phone, online, or through mobile apps.
The arrests add to a steady stream of captures this year. Through early August, Texas authorities had recorded 50 total captures from the Most Wanted rosters in 2026, including 35 registered sex offenders and eight documented gang members, according to prior Hoodline reporting. Earlier in the year, state and local task forces had captured 33 fugitives from the Most Wanted lists during the first five months of 2026 alone, resulting in $50,500 in Texas Crime Stoppers cash rewards paid out for public tips, according to FOX 7 Austin.
