A serial child rapist convicted in three states, whose impending release has been stirring outrage after being behind bars for more than four decades, won't be released from a Massachusetts prison on Wednesday.
Wayne Chapman's attorney, Eric Tennen, said Chapman's release is tentative on finding him a place to stay.
Authorities are currently looking for housing in the state.
Outrage has been growing over Chapman's impending release, who was sent to prison in 1977 for raping two boys in Lawrence.
Chapman has spent years trying to be released, but court documents show he was found to be too dangerous each time and that he refused to take part in treatment while in prison.
Documents also show that Chapman had roughly 50 victims in a 10 year span. He is believed to have molested many victims in the woods by luring them there to find a phony dog.
Chapman is also the main suspect in the 1976 disappearance of Andy Puglisi, a 10-year-old boy who went to a Lawrence pool and was never seen again.
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Puglisi's aunt, Billie Scharn, has been trying to keep Chapman behind bars.
"I believe the man is evil," she said. "Their sentence is a life sentence for what they went through. You can’t take that away from them. That’s always going to be there for them, so why shouldn’t he have a life sentence, too?"
When Chapman petitioned to be released this year, two experts testified he was no longer sexually dangerous, meaning he was able to skip a hearing at Suffolk Superior Court, and now the Department of Corrections has to set him free.
"Wayne Chapman has molested a lot of children," retired detective Al Mintz said.
Mintz was a Providence, Rhode Island, officer when he first interviewed Chapman for 22 hours back in 1976. He helped put Chapman behind bars and said that's the only place Chapman should be.
"He's probably the most prolific pedophile I've ever run across, and I've run across plenty of them."
Chapman is being held at Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Shirley.
It's unclear what Chapman's conditions will be when he is released.
