Oprah rewards two viewers with $100,000

updated 11:59 a.m. ET Oct. 12, 2005

FARGO, N.D. - Two friends who identified a convicted sex offender profiled on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” received $50,000 checks for their part in capturing the fugitive from Indiana.

The arrest of William C. Davis, 33, came just days after Winfrey announced a campaign to track down sex offenders. Another fugitive who was wanted in Ohio also has been arrested since the broadcast, officials said.

Karie Miller, of Fargo, and Jean Rosenthal, of Moorhead, Minn., held hands Tuesday while walking onto the set of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to a standing ovation by the audience.

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Miller tipped off FBI agents last week, reporting that Davis lived above her family in a north Fargo apartment. Davis was arrested in Fargo on Thursday, two days after Winfrey broadcast his face and offered $100,000 for information leading to his capture.

“This is why I say you were so courageous, because you know what courage is,” Winfrey told the women. “It’s being scared but doing it anyway.”

Rosenthal also saw Winfrey’s Oct. 4 show on fugitives accused of preying on children when she recognized one fugitive as Miller’s neighbor, whom the women knew as Mark. Rosenthal called Miller a day later, and the following day Miller used her sister’s computer to look up Davis’ profile.

“And the next day when I see his picture, it scared me so bad,” Miller told ABC’s “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “I knew without a shadow of a doubt it was him, but at the same time was in such disbelief.”

Miller then called the FBI, and a few hours later agents arrested Davis.

Authorities wanted Davis, of Wadesville, Ind., on felony charges of molesting three Indiana boys and failing to register as a sex offender.

Davis, who was convicted of child molestation in 1992, used an Indiana birth certificate and driver’s license to obtain a North Dakota license in his brother’s name.

Miller told ABC that Davis’ first call from jail was to her.

“He called and said, ‘I can’t believe you guys helped them bring me down. I thought we were friends,”’ Miller said. “I didn’t even know the man’s real name.”

Another accused sex offender, Niles Scott, was arrested in Belize after a woman recognized him on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and contacted local authorities, according to an FBI statement posted on Winfrey’s Web site.

Scott, 50, was wanted in the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl, and he has been returned to Cleveland to face charges, the FBI said.

“The FBI is very thankful to the Oprah Winfrey show and the general public for helping us catch this dangerous fugitive,” said Cleveland FBI agent Scott Wilson.

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