On television crime shows police officers always get their bad guy, but in the real world officers will tell you that isn't always the case.

But one former Gainesville Police detective solved a case of a sexual predator in hollywood fashion and he's being awarded, not with an emmy but with top state honors.

Detective John Madsen is being awarded Florida Department of Law Enforcement's highest award for solving a Missing and Endangered Person's Crime, and he did so with even fewer clues than in television dramas.

Like a prime time television detective, Madsen was in hot pursuit of a sexual predator, going on the smallest of clues to try and find him.

Madsen, now a resident of Wisconsin, says, "it came as an intelligence tip from the Alachua County Jail, an inmate had over hears another inmate about a case of a child molestation."

The final clue that led madsen to the perpetrator's front door came from the 5-year-old victim. John Jones ultimately admitted to the crime and is serving a 25-year sentence as a sexual predator.

And Detective Madsen says it's closing cases like these that make his job all the more worth it.

Stacey Samuel