‘30 years of waiting for that knock’: After he was accused of SA, U.S. soldier ran. The US Marshals finally tracked him down

Jesse Bussey, a fugitive who managed to evade U.S. authorities for nearly 30 years after being accused of sexual assault, has finally been returned to the United States from Spain to serve his prison sentence. The 69-year-old was extradited on June 8 and is now being held at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which is the military’s only maximum-security prison for male service members convicted by court-martial.

According to Task & Purpose, Nick Ricigliano, an Army veteran and U.S. Marshal, has been tracking Bussey since 2019. Ricigliano, who now serves as the acting United States Marshal for the District of New Jersey, met Bussey when he was flown into Newark. “I was a bit taken aback by how much he had aged and how unhealthy he appeared.” He added, “I suppose 30 years of waiting for that knock on the door had taken a physical as well as mental toll.”

The case against Bussey dates back to September 1996, when he was serving with the 299th Forward Support Battalion, 1st Infantry Division in Germany. He was reportedly accused of rape and two counts of indecent assault against multiple women in his unit. Just as his court-martial was scheduled to begin, Bussey disappeared. He was convicted in absentia of rape, indecent assault, and desertion. His sentence included 16 years in prison, a reduction in rank to E-1, and a dishonorable discharge.

The manhunt was conducted first by the Army and then by the US Marshals

The U.S. Marshals Service noted in a press release that the manhunt for Bussey was one of the most prolonged in the agency’s history. Army investigators believed early on that Bussey had likely never returned to the United States. So, they concentrated their efforts on international leads across Europe and Africa. Per reports, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division had even offered a $25,000 reward for information that could lead to his capture.

Task and Purpose reported that the investigation eventually gained real momentum when it was handed over to the U.S. Marshals. By that time, as Ricigliano noted, Bussey “had a 23 year head start on us.” Ricigliano and his partner, Senior Inspector Kevin Kamrowski, utilized extensive investigative techniques to build a profile of Bussey’s life. They conducted hours-long interviews with his former unit members, family, friends, and the victims. 

Through this work, they discovered he had joined the French Foreign Legion under an alias shortly after deserting his post. Bussey reportedly served in the Legion until early 2000. He later told authorities he left because he did not want to fight “pocket wars in Africa” and described the brutal nature of the Legion, claiming they used physical force to “beat the French into you.”

The final breakthrough came in 2024. According to The U.S. Sun, the US Marshals received a tip from the public about a man using the name David Osuji. It led investigators to Malaga, Spain, to investigate the man who worked as an English teacher at a school. “Kevin Kamrowski was the guy who took this tip, and he said: ‘I really like this tip, and this is the one we’re going to drill down on,’” Ricigliano said.

The Sun noted that the man was positively identified as Bussey in September 2024. It then took another 14 months of international coordination to secure his arrest. A Spanish judge issued an arrest warrant in November 2025, and Bussey was captured on November 10, 2025. He spent the following months fighting extradition before he was finally sent back to the U.S.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Ricigliano told the outlets. “You feel like you are actually contributing to ensuring that the victims get justice. We have been in touch with some of his victims over the investigation, and being able to deliver the news to the victims that he’s been apprehended — I can’t think of a better feeling than that.”

Bussey isn’t the only person who was extradited to the US recently. This month, Myung Jin Kim was captured after a decade, 8000 miles away, and brought back for two murder trials. The US Marshals are now hunting for an escaped Georgia inmate behind an $11 million gold coin fraud scheme.