BONITA, Calif.—Neighbors in a well-to-do section of this San Diego suburb knew him as Frank Szeles, a friendly Cub Scouts leader who frequently gave swimming lessons to young children in his backyard pool.
The federal agents who arrested him last week knew him by a different name: “Mr. Wonder,” the host of a popular children’s television show who vanished decades ago amid allegations that he sexually abused several kids during a camping retreat in central Louisiana.
The man who faced a San Diego judge Wednesday denied he is the 76-year-old fugitive named Frank John Selas III who allegedly fled to Brazil in 1979 after Louisiana authorities secured a warrant for his arrest.
Back in Louisiana, Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office investigators are convinced the right man is in custody. Meanwhile, officials in California are suddenly facing fears that Selas could have preyed on other children during the 37 years that he eluded capture.
“It’s absolutely shocking the level of access that this guy had to children, even now,” said Steve Jurman, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal in San Diego. “If there’s a playbook for pedophiles, he checked off every single box.”
Jurman said Selas had moved to California by 1985 and legally changed his last name to Szeles in 1992. Investigators in Louisiana believe Selas lived in other places—including Chicago; Darien, Connecticut; South Royalton, Vermont; and Sheffield, Massachusetts—after he returned from South America in the early 1980s.
