TUPPER LAKE – On Monday night, for the second time in as many months, convicted sex offender Adam Vanvalkenburg left his state group home for people with developmental disabilities without permission.

He made it 48 miles before he returned to the custody of Sunmount Developmental Disabilities Services Office six hours later.

Vanvalkenburg, 26, is formerly of Jay and has again been returned to a Sunmount group home at 380 Hosley Ave., overseen by the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. He left the grounds of that residence at about 9:20 p.m. Monday, according to state police spokesman Trooper Kyle Otis.

“He told a staff member, ‘I’m going to walk to the hospital’ and just walked out,” Otis said. The staff member immediately notified state police, Otis wrote via email, but more than six hours passed before Vanvalkenburg was found.

At about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, Otis said concerned citizen Pamela Bacon of Jay notified Sunmount Safety that Vanvalkenburg was at 137 Hazen Road in Jay, close to his former home at 133 Hazen Road and 48 miles from his Tupper Lake residence. Otis said he did not have any details on how Vanvalkenburg managed to travel that far in that amount of time. Otis said state police located him at 137 Hazen Road and confirmed that he was in good health and condition, and Sunmount Safety transported him voluntarily back to 380 Hosley Ave. without further incident.

A person who answered the phone at Bacon’s residence hung up on this reporter.

Vanvalkenburg is a voluntary resident of Sunmount, not required to live there, according to Paul Maroun, a member of Sunmount’s Board of Visitors who is also mayor of Tupper Lake and a Franklin County legislator.

This is not the first time Vanvalkenburg has departed the grounds of the group home without permission. He left during the early morning hours of Feb. 29 and was found by a Sunmount Safety sergeant about 10 miles north of Sunmount’s main campus later that morning. On that occasion, Otis said Sunmount staff told state police Vanvalkenburg was in his room during a 2 a.m. bed check, and they never heard him leave.

The state registry lists three levels of sex offender, in ascending order of risk. Vanvalkenburg is listed on the registry as level 2, with a moderate risk of a repeat offense. He was convicted in July 2014 of one count of second-degree sexual abuse-sexual contact with a person less than 14 years old, a class A misdemeanor, for an incident involving an 11-year-old girl. The registry says he “immediately and physically overpowered” his victim. At the time of his arrest, state police said the girl tried to escape but Vanvalkenburg held her back, preventing her from leaving. He was sentenced to six years of probation under the supervision of the Essex County Probation Department.

In March 2015, a fire destroyed the mobile home Vanvalkenburg shared with his mother, Linda Vanvalkenburg, at 133 Hazen Road in Jay. Linda died of asphyxiation caused by carbon monoxide intoxication while Adam escaped and was treated for smoke inhalation. Otis said state police closed their investigation into the fire on Dec. 31 without filing any charges, but Essex County Coroner Frank Whitelaw said the manner of Linda Vanvalkenburg’s death is still pending investigation.

Adam moved to Sunmount sometime after that.

Many questions remain unanswered regarding his departures. If he informed a staff member that he was leaving, why didn’t the staff member stop him? What is the staff protocol for such a situation? Can residents of that group home leave whenever they like? How was he able to get 48 miles away, over an hour’s drive, undetected during a six-hour window of time? If a staff member knew he was leaving, why didn’t he or she follow Vanvalkenburg until an appropriate safety team could escort him back to the grounds? Given his prior incident in February, why was Vanvalkenburg still housed in the 380 Hosley Ave. group home and not a more secure facility? Was his risk management plan modified after the February incident? Will his plan be modified now that a second incident has occurred less than two months later? How concerned should the residents of Tupper Lake, Jay and all communities in between be about their safety? Given the state-assessed “moderate risk” of him committing another sex offense, what measures are being taken to ensure that he does not leave Sunmount’s custody again?

OPWDD Director of Communication Jennifer O’Sullivan did not give direct answers.

“The safety of those in OPWDD services, and the safety of the community are of utmost importance, and all measures possible are taken to ensure this safety,” she wrote via email in response to the above questions. “Due to the strict confidentiality laws that our agency must adhere to, we are unable to comment on the specifics of any person’s care. It’s important to note that individuals in our care are receiving OPWDD services to support needs related to their developmental disability and the majority are receiving our services voluntarily, not because they are required to by court order.”

This is the fourth confirmed instance of a Sunmount resident leaving the grounds without permission since October 2014, although there may be more. During the first incident, a male resident jumped out of a second-story laundry room window at Sunmount’s main campus and walked to the McDonald’s on Demars Boulevard, nearly 2 miles away, according to village police, who said they received a call from the McDonald’s informing them that a Sunmount resident was on the premises. The man admitted to police he was a Sunmount resident and did not have permission to be at the restaurant, and the Sunmount Safety Department picked him up.

In November 2014, Samantha Cole, a level 3 sex offender convicted of third-degree rape in 2011 for having sex with two boys, aged 15 and 17 at the time, left the same group home Vanvalkenburg walked out of – through her window, according to state police. She was found shortly afterward on the steps of Holy Name Catholic Church, about 3 miles away.

Vanvalkenburg’s departure is the latest in a string of incidents at Sunmount facilities that cause many in the community to wonder what happens behind their doors. Some of those involve violence: by residents, staff, or both. In 2015, 16 Sunmount staff members were arrested for charges such as assault against residents, although many of the incidents the charges stem from occurred in prior years. Four Sunmount residents were arrested for assault and/or falsely alleging assault.

In early 2015, Civil Service Employee Association representatives said the demands brought on by a staffing shortage and the resulting mandated overtime had left Sunmount workers exhausted, dispirited and prone to making mistakes with the people in their care. The union reps criticized the state Justice Center’s investigations for the length of time they place employees on administrative leave for complaints of abuse that are later found to be unsubstantiated. Such investigations can last for months, which they said compounds the overtime crisis.

This March, O’Sullivan said Sunmount had made 169 new hires in direct care for 2015, covering attrition and increasing its full-time employee count by 107. She said OPWDD’s efforts to increase staff at Sunmount have decreased the use of overtime over the most recent pay periods.