TikTok is a social network where almost anything can happen. At Magnet we have echoed the most surreal challenges such as putting ___s in soy sauce or bizarre fashions such as impersonating an NPC. Today we want to delve into another peculiar story of this platform: the TikTok fugitive. His name is Chad Hower, he has been on the run from Interpol for 17 years. but keep uploading videos daily.
Also known as “Kudzu the raccoon”, he was accused by his ex-wife of kidnapping his son, Alex, who is now 26 years old, in 2009. Now, he dedicates himself to recounting his daily life in different countries on the social network. in which he takes refuge flee from the authorities North Americans. In much of the content he uploads to TikTok, he defends his innocence and claims that the FBI (and now Interpol) is pursuing him without evidence, despite several court documents questioning these claims.
How it all started? With a divorce. Chad was a software developer for Microsoft at the time, he was married and had a son, but in 2001 he and his wife decided to separate their paths. And five years later Chad got custody of his sonformerly called Aarys (now Alex), alleging some negligent behavior on the part of his ex-wife.
After that, our protagonist went to live in Europe, to Cyprus, and decided to also take his son. As Chad explains, after losing custody, Aarys’ mother went to live in Pennsylvania. “Aarys has never lived in Pennsylvania and she has no ties other than a few relatives. But there, in Pennsylvania, she filed kidnapping charges against me.”
Through the videos in which he tells his story and some court documents, we know that Chad, in addition to returning to the United States for a while, after the kidnapping accusation had to flee around the world until the end of 2009. They arrested him in Bulgaria, where they tried to request his extradition but were unsuccessful. Total, He was interned in a total of five Bulgarian prisons in the span of three months. He was later released after his extradition was denied in all of them.
@kudzutheraccon
♬ Emotional Cinematic Sad Violin and Piano – ISAo
Jumping from one place to another traveled from Europe to the Caribbean, to a remote island called San Cristóbal where he lived for a while and developed a very serious kidney disease, for which he is still seeking treatment. His journey did not stop there. From the tropical climate he went to the freezing cold of Moscow in Russia, where he supposedly currently resides as we have seen in the latest videos of him uploaded to the social network.
The alleged conspiracy
Through his profiles on TikTok, Instagram and X (Twitter), Chad emphasizes that those who accuse him of allegedly kidnapping his son are false. AND He has a website where he explains his case in detail. and attaches some related documents. Chad also talks about a conspiracy against him: “The same Judge White, just 2 months later on November 6, participated in the creation of deliberately false kidnapping charges against me and claimed that Aarys’ whereabouts were unknown, although “both he and his mother had full contact information about him in Cyprus,” he says.
Furthermore, he assures that at no time was he given any warning or any possibility that his defense could contribute anything to the accusation against him: “This it was done secretly, behind closed doors, in a Federal Grand Jury. No notification was ever given nor was there any possibility for my legal defense to be present,” says the fugitive.
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A post shared by Chad Z. Hower (@chad.hower)
In a podcast, he reveals that there are two theories as to why the FBI and Interpol want to arrest him. The first is that everything is a misunderstanding and a big mistake on the part of the authorities, although he does not really believe in this possibility. His other theory is much more bizarre. He claims that his persecution has to do with his in-laws, who used to work as engineers and had access to Russian military secrets: “Three intelligence agencies, all allies of the United States, approached me to try to recruit me when I worked for Microsoft and remarried a Russian citizen in 2002.”
His son, on the other hand, although he is still listed as missing, is also active on social networks and even has a website where he claims to be alive. Yes indeed, He doesn’t want to have a relationship with his mother. and he has even changed his name to Alex. To this day, neither the FBI nor Interpol have been able to arrest Chad and he is still being searched and captured. His videos, a podcast on Spotify titled “Alex is NOT missing” and a petition for support on change.org titled “Justice For Chad Hower” are the only weapons he still has left.
