How a tipster tracked a U.S. fugitive 'psychic' to Toronto after a 21-year search

It was an internet sleuth — claiming to have used facial recognition technology and social media clues — who pointed authorities to the whereabouts of a longtime U.S. fugitive leading a double life in Ontario.

CBC News has pieced together new details about the anonymous tip that led Toronto police earlier this year to apprehend Patrick Lutts Jr., more than two decades after he skipped a Florida court hearing on manslaughter charges and vanished.

A CBC investigation recently revealed Lutts, 51, had been openly living in the city for years, hosting a monthly bar trivia night and working as a self-styled psychic, all while evading U.S. authorities. 

Court records show the Texas-born Lutts was charged in March 1999 with DUI manslaughter in connection with an early-morning crash in Orlando that killed two teens. He was scheduled to enter a plea in October 2003 but disappeared, until his arrest by the Toronto Police Service fugitive squad this past February.

Wearing orange jail garb, Lutts made a brief appearance in Ontario Superior Court in downtown Toronto by video link from a local detention centre on Wednesday morning. He raised his hand to identify himself to the judge.

Lawyer Shreeya Devnani spoke on his behalf. Reached by phone afterward, she declined to say whether Lutts intends to fight extradition to Florida. 

It's not clear how or when he arrived in Canada, and the Canada Border Services Agency said it has no record of his entry. Lutts has no legal status in the country, according to Ontario court files.

"It's been a roller-coaster of emotions," said Jorge Leon, whose cousin, Nancy Lopez, was killed in the collision in Orlando on Christmas Day 1998. 

Investigators said Lutts had spent the previous night drinking and slammed his truck into the vehicle carrying Lopez, 19, and her 18-year-old boyfriend Darvin Javier DeJesus-Taboada. The couple was killed on impact.

"You just left," Leon said of Lutts's years on the run. "You were a coward."

'I find fugitives and have found several before'

In 2019, Leon said he created a Facebook page dedicated to Lutts in hopes of drawing attention to the case. Then, in April 2024, came the message that changed everything.

"Hello," the anonymous note read. "I need to talk to you about Patrick Lutts."

What followed was an avalanche of new information — CBC has managed to confirm much of it — about the fugitive's whereabouts, the Toronto bar where he worked as a quizmaster and the alias he was using online: Pat Lighthelp.

"I found him with facial recognition," the tipster wrote, while sharing pictures from Lutts's Facebook profile. Leon said the person didn't reveal their gender or real name, but said they lived in the U.S. and had already reported the findings to a crime tip line. 

"I find fugitives and have found several before," the tipster wrote in the series of messages reviewed by CBC. The person said they had started looking into Lutts after seeing him featured in an online forum for fans of the TV show America's Most Wanted.

"We're finally getting justice," Leon, the victim's cousin, said in an interview. "And it's because of this person."

A summary of Florida prosecutors' evidence in the case, filed in Ontario Superior Court as part of extradition proceedings, confirms investigators first got wind of Lutts's location from an anonymous tip in November 2023. The tipster told Leon they had already reached out to authorities that same month.

Toronto police later tracked the fugitive to an apartment building in the city's Church and Wellesley area. 

Fugitive was active online

Until his arrest in February, Lutts offered clients relationship advice and life coaching online under his Pat Lighthelp alias.

His profile disappeared from the New Zealand-based "psychic reading" platform LifeReader earlier this month after CBC asked the company about its knowledge of Lutts's past. 

LifeReader did not respond to requests for comment.

Online posts show Lutts also hosted a monthly horror-themed trivia night at a Toronto bar. 

"Congratulations to the winners and we look forward to seeing all of you [in] 2025!" Lutts said in an online post in December.

While the tipster suggested they scoured social media for clues, the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida declined to discuss what investigative steps had been taken over the years to locate Lutts. 

"There would have been a warrant issued, and any law enforcement agency would have been able to find the warrant in the system," a spokesperson said in an email.

Kenneth Gray, a former FBI special agent who now teaches criminal justice at Connecticut's University of New Haven, said it's common for an anonymous tip to prove crucial in the search for a fugitive. Otherwise, he said, suspects not featured on a most-wanted list may remain on the run indefinitely.

"Unless you come into contact with law enforcement somehow, or try to fly on an aircraft or try to cross the border, it's possible to remain hidden from law enforcement somewhat successfully," Gray said.

Ryan Hittel, a lawyer representing Nancy Lopez's mother Nelida Cordero, said in a statement that Cordero is "extremely grateful for the efforts of American and Canadian law enforcement — and for the help of the anonymous tipster — which have resulted in the capture of Patrick Lutts Jr."

This past February, Lopez's cousin Jorge Leon wrote to the internet sleuth to share news of Lutts's arrest. The message was never delivered. An automatic response said the user had already closed their Facebook account.

Leon said he only wishes he could thank the tipster.

"He or she would definitely get a hug from me, my aunt [Nelida], the whole family," he said.

"You are an angel to us."