It's an internet detective – claiming to use facial recognition technology and social media clues – he pointed out the whereabouts of authorities' long-standing fugitives in the United States, living a dual life in Ontario.
CBC News has pieced together new details about anonymous tips that led Toronto police to arrest Patrick Lutts Jr. earlier this year, two decades after he disappeared for a hearing in Florida for misjudgment charges.
CBC Investigation Recently revealed Lutts, 51, has lived in the city for many years, hosting a monthly bar trivia night while escaping U.S. authorities and working as a self-proclaimed psychologist.
Lutts, born in Texas, was charged in March 1999 with DUI Mansluggre, which was linked to a morning crash in Orlando that killed two teenagers, court records show. He was scheduled to plead guilty in October 2003 but disappeared until he was arrested by the Toronto Police Department's Fugitive Team in February last year.
Lutts is scheduled to appear in Ontario court on Wednesday. He faces extradition to Florida and has not responded to the allegations since his arrest. It is unclear how or when he arrived in Canada, and border agencies have no record of his entry. According to Ontario court files, he has no legal status in the country.
“It's been a roller coaster of emotions,” said Jorge Leon, whose cousin Nancy Lopez was killed in a collision in Orlando on Christmas Day 1998.
Investigators said Lutts had a drink the night before and hit the truck in a vehicle carrying 19-year-old Lopez and her 18-year-old boyfriend Darvin Javier Dejesus-Taboada. The couple died from the impact.
“You just left,” Leon said of Lutz's years in the running. “You're a coward.”
“I found the fugitive and found several before”
Leon said in 2019 that he created a Facebook page specifically targeting Lutts, hoping to draw attention to the case. Then, in April 2024, there was a message that changed everything.
“Hello,” read the anonymous comment. “I need to talk to you about Patrick Lutts.”
With that comes a huge swathe of new information – the CBC has managed to confirm much of it – about the whereabouts of the fugitive, the Toronto Bar, where he serves as Quizmaster, and the alias he uses online: Pat Lightthelp.
“I found him to have facial recognition,” the prompter wrote. Leon said the person did not disclose their gender or real name, but said they live in the United States and had reported the findings to the Crime Tips Line.
“I found the fugitive and found several before,” the prompter wrote in a series of messages reviewed by the CBC. The person said they saw fans of TV shows on the online forums and began to study Lutts after seeing him on the online forums What America wants most.
“We finally got justice,” Leon, the victim's cousin, said in an interview. “It's because of this person.”
As part of the extradition process, a summary of the evidence of Florida prosecutors filed in the Ontario High Court confirmed that investigators first obtained Lutz’s location from an anonymous tip in November 2023. The prompter told Leon that they had reached out to the authorities for the same period.
Toronto police later tracked fugitives in the city’s church and an apartment building in the Wellesley area.
The runaway is active online
Until his arrest in February, Lutts provided relationship advice and life guidance to clients under his Pat Lighthelp alias.
After CBC asked the company about Lutts’s past, his profile disappeared from Lifereader, a New Zealand “psychological reading” platform.
Lifereader did not respond to a request for comment.
Online posts show Lutts also hosted a horror-themed trivia night at a bar in Toronto.
“Congratulations to the winner, we look forward to meeting you all [in] 2025! “Luz said in his online post in December.
While prompters suggested they search for social media clues, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Florida refused to discuss investigative steps taken over the years to locate Lutts.
“A warrant will be issued and any law enforcement agency can find the warrant in the system,” a spokesperson said in an email.
Kenneth Gray, a former FBI agent who now teaches criminal justice at the University of New Haven, Connecticut, said anonymous tips are very common in finding fugitives. Otherwise, the suspects could remain on the most popular list indefinitely, he said.
“Unless you have somehow contacted law enforcement, or tried to fly or try to cross the border, there is a chance that you can successfully hide in law enforcement,” Gray said.
Ryan Hittel, the attorney representing Nancy Lopez's mother, Nelida Cordero, said in a statement that Coldro “great thanks to the efforts of the U.S. and Canadian law enforcement and with the help of anonymous tips-causing Patrick Lutts Jr.”
Last February, Lopez's cousin Jorge Leon wrote to Internet Sleuth to share news of Lutz's arrest. The message was never delivered. The automatic reply said that the user has closed their Facebook account.
Leon said he only hopes he can thank the prompter.
“He or she will definitely get a hug from me, my aunt [Nelida]the whole family. ” he said.
“You are our angel.”
