i'm announcing today the arrest of a vicious child rapist by the united states marshals service in california acting on a milwaukee thomas thornhill was arrested today for the brutal sexual assault of a nine-year-old girl that occurred in the fifth district last january that little girl was literally stolen from her bed thornhill was also wanted in connection with the sexual assault of a woman that occurred in 2008. we're here to tell you that that dangerous criminal is now off the street our sensitive crimes division has worked tirelessly and relentlessly on this case for nearly a year following up lead after lead sometimes to dead ends but never giving up good detective work resulted in the identification of thomas thornhill as the assailant we thank the media for having put thornhill's picture out there every time we asked for it we got several leads as a result of that picture and some of them were in fact helpful now solid police work led us to california particularly sensitive crimes division detective steve wells and greg jackson worked on this case from the beginning developing suspects developing trust with the family developing trust with people who could give them information that they could turn into leads it was they who ascertained the whereabouts of this suspect and were able to notify the marshal's service where he could be located i also want to credit in addition to the sensitive crimes division our neighborhood task force and our intelligence fusion center the ntf searched the city for thornhill in every house every basement and under every rock where we had a credible lead i also want to thank the district attorney's office for their help in developing the warrants for both searches and arrests in this case any member of this police department who knew of this crime worked on this case and we're proud that today all of that work has resulted in an apprehension speaking here for the united states marshals service as united states marshal for uh the eastern district of uh wisconsin kevin carr marshall thank you chief the milwaukee police department and the milwaukee district attorney's office as well as the u.s attorney's office and the marshals service work together to bring about the arrest of this dangerous suspect in this case today in los angeles at about two o'clock this afternoon members of the u.s marshals service fugitive pacific southwest regional task force initially arrested thornhill at a residence outside of los angeles when he was arrested he initially denied his identity but then after confronting him about certain characteristics such as his matching tattoos he admitted who he was and now and now awaits the extradition to the state of wisconsin what's important to remember here is that this is a perfect example of how cooperation and collaboration between all of the law enforcement entities involved resulted in the arrest of this dangerous criminal thank you thanks marshall um obviously we can't get too much into specifics as you understand we still need to extradite him and question him the bureau of milwaukee child welfare has placed the girl in foster care