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A welfare check this week on a homeless family camping near Walmart led to the arrest of a registered sex offender for violation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

When Andalusia Police Department officers executed the welfare check on Tuesday, they found the man, Edward Neff, along with three adult females, a three-year-old child and two dogs. One of the females was nine months pregnant.

When asked for identification, Neff first gave officers his brother’s name and age. When he learned that his brother had outstanding felony warrants in Tennessee, he divulged his true identity, and officers learned he was a sex offender out of Lakeland, Florida, who had served time for lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under 12.

The federal SORNA Act requires sex offenders to both register their residences with the state in which they were charged and to notify the state in which they live if they move from the original state. Simply stated, Neff should have notified Florida officials he was camping in Alabama and notified Alabama officials, Sgt. Al McGraw said.

The group’s indicated that they rented a vehicle to go to Tennessee to assist one of the women, who was a victim of domestic violence. On the way home, a deer ran into the rental vehicle, causing damage. They told officers they were $80 short of being able to rent another vehicle.

The group first said they had been in the Andalusia area since Friday, but officers discovered they had been here about a month and a half, including the time of the January snowstorm. Officers said some members of the group had food stamps and had been able to purchase food.

The Department of Human Resources was contacted to assist the women and the child, and ultimately assisted them in returning to Lakeland. Animal Control took the dogs to the Andalusia Animal Shelter.

Neff was charged with violation of SORNA and giving false information to officers. Bond has not yet been set, and he is being held in the Covington County Jail.