Gloucester News

Tennessee Fugitive Found in Gloucester County

Reporter Kimberly Sweeney

Stacey Paul Dyer, a 44 year old man who had been running from legal prosecution in Tennessee after sexual assault charges for three years, was just arrested by authorities in Gloucester, VA.

In February of 2008, Dyer had twice raped a four year-old boy. Court began in 2013, and in 2014 Dyer was charged and initially released in 2014 with pending trial on a $50,000 bond. A Tennessee Grand Jury indicted him. However, he never showed up to the motions hearing.

“He skedaddled and failed to appear,” a Tennessee prosecutor said.

NorthEast Tennessee police made a considerable effort to find Dyer all the way until last year. It was said that he still had family in Tennessee, and that at least one of them should have known where he was. However, he was nowhere to be found.

“We just never had any good leads as to where he might be,” said Kingsport Police Sgt. Martin Taylor, “We tried contacting family, and nobody knew where he was at ... We had no idea he was in Virginia.” The officials from Tennessee were made aware of Dyer’s arrest one week after his actual arrest. It wasn’t clear where Dyer had been living during the three years prior to his arrest.

In 2019, Dyer was involved in a car crash in Gloucester, VA, in his Toyota RAV4 and involving a Freightliner tractor-trailer. The Virginia state police say that Dyer was driving south-bound on route 17 when he swerved into the north lanes, hitting the tractor trailer. Troopers also say that the tractor-trailer driver attempted to swerve out of the way but was still hit. This entire escapade happened around five in the morning. Both Dyer and the other driver sustained non life-threatening injuries and were treated at Riverside Walter Reed hospital.

When Dyer was confronted by the police he gave them a false name and different social security numbers. He stated that his name was “Paul Stacey Lane.” However, the trooper stated that he had difficulty confirming that as his true name. He identified him as Stacey Paul Dyer by his tattoos and other information provided, which allowed him to make an arrest. His last address was found to be in Kingsport, Tennessee.

That was when Dyer was charged with obstruction of justice, giving false information, reckless driving, no valid operator's license and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle following the Gloucester crash.

When Dyer’s name was plugged into the criminal database the police found out just who they had arrested.

Dyer will be charged at Gloucester General District Court with several charges, including reckless driving, obstruction of justice, giving false information, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and driving without a license. Dyer will also be facing his original charges of sexual assualt and rape along with a probation violation, failure to appear, and driving on a suspended license. In the end, all the Virginian officials involved were just glad such a man was caught, and those from Tennessee, glad they could finally move forward on a case that brought a criminal to justice.