Wanted sex offender arrested days after missing mother found dead at same home

CLEVELAND (WOIO/Gray News) - Authorities in Ohio say a wanted sex offender was arrested early Friday morning at the same home where a missing Tennessee mother was found dead last week.

According to authorities, Matthew Hensley, 43, was wanted by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department for failing to register his address after a conviction of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

U.S. Marshals said Hensley was found hiding inside a secret compartment he built inside the home.

U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott added that they had been searching for Hensley for two months and that the 43-year-old had additional charges of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor from an indictment in 2022.

Hensley was featured on Cuyahoga’s Most Wanted a day before his arrest. The task force said it received numerous tips about his whereabouts all across the Cleveland area.

“Predators wanted for crimes involving children will be at the top of our list, whether it be for new crimes or failing to follow the laws after they are released with respect to address registration. If they don’t follow the law, we will find them,” Elliott said.

On July 3, Amber Graham, 37, of Spring Hill, Tennessee, was found dead outside the same home as Hensely’s arrest. Police and fire personnel discovered her body covered in a sheet.

In the Cleveland police report connected to Graham’s death, Hensley is listed as an involved person.

A friend of Graham said in a previous interview that the 37-year-old had brought her 8-year-old daughter with her on a trip to meet a man she had been communicating with online.

Officials reported on July 1 that a child had walked into a Cleveland-area fire station alone, but they would not confirm the child’s relation to Graham.

“She appeared uninjured, but she had a phone number in her pocket for her grandmother in Tennessee, and they called child protective services,” Cleveland Fire Lt. Mike Norman said.

The Tennessee mother’s friend said the child in question was Graham’s.

Cleveland police said they are awaiting the medical examiner’s ruling on Graham’s death regarding a potential criminal investigation.