The Morton County Sheriff's Department is searching for a moderate-risk sex offender who told authorities earlier this month that he was living at Fort Lincoln State Park.

Timothy Robert Carpenterlove, 39, registered an address of the campground at the state park on Aug. 2, according to a sheriff's department release. He vacated the campground on Aug. 10, and he did not notify the sheriff's department of his change of address.

Carpenterlove has been charged in Morton County with Class C felony failure to register as a sex offender. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

According to the North Dakota attorney general's sex offender Web site, Carpenterlove registered to live at Spot 66 at the Fort Lincoln State Park campground.

Park manager Dan Schelske said Carpenterlove was visiting the park with his family, and park officials were unaware he was a sex offender.

"We don't look into everybody's profile who comes into the park," he said.

Schelske said a local visitor to the park was looking on the attorney general's Web site and noticed Carpenterlove had registered to live at the park. He called the park the night of Aug. 9, a Thursday.

"That Friday, he was gone," Schelske said.

He said people only can stay in state parks for 14 days.

He said preventing a convicted sex offender from staying at the park would be a civil rights violation, but park officials would like to know if a sex offender is staying at the park. Schelske said he has asked the sheriff's department to give him a heads up if the situation arises again.

"Nothing bad happened,"Schelske said. "It's just kind of an awareness issue."

Carpenterlove was convicted in 1988 in Arizona of attempted molestation of a child for non-consensual sexual contact with an 11-year-old boy. He was sentenced to three years of supervised probation.

He also was convicted in 2006 in Mercer County of sexual assault for having oral sex with a 14-year-old boy. He was sentenced to 30 days with 10 days suspended and two years of supervised probation.

Carpenterlove is 6-feet-1-inch tall and weighs 265 pounds. He has blonde curly hair, as well as a beard and mustache. When he registered with the Morton County Sheriff's Department, he was driving a dark-blue Chevrolet van with North Dakota license plate HTP126.

Anyone with information about Carpenterlove's whereabouts should call the Morton County Sheriff's Department at 667-3330 or a local law enforcement agency.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)