ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The search has ended for a convicted child sex offender who walked away from Mercy South Hospital early Thursday morning.

Tommy Wayne Boyd was taken back into custody Thursday night in the Dierbergs parking lot on Old Route 66 (Watson Road).

Boyd, 45, was serving a 30-year sentence at the Potosi Correctional Center for statutory sodomy. He’d been taken to Mercy South for an undisclosed treatment. Boyd walked out of the main entrance at the hospital shortly before 4 a.m.

Authorities said Boyd was in the custody of two state corrections officers when he escaped. There was no physical confrontation when Boyd escaped, and no one was hurt.