AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File
Actor and director Timothy Busfield has been missing for three days since a warrant was issued for his arrest for alleged child sex abuse of two boys on the set of one of his shows, and the U.S. Marshals have been called in to help search for him.
Busfield, 68, rose to fame with roles on beloved shows like Thirtysomething and The West Wing; his directorial credits include dozens of television programs. He has been married to actress Melissa Gilbert since 2013. He has three children from two previous marriages.
On Jan. 9, the Albuquerque Police Department issued a warrant for Busfield, 68, listing three counts: two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor, and one count of child abuse.
According to the police affidavit, the two boys, 11-year-old twin brothers, were child actors who met Busfield on the set of the Fox television series The Cleaning Lady, which he joined as director in 2022. To protect their identities, the boys are identified by the initials “SL” and “VL” in the affidavit.
The investigation into Busfield originated with a report by a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) in November 2024 of alleged child sexual abuse. The police declined to take the case initially, but in October 2025, the boys’ mother filed a new report with the police and Child Protective Services with additional information that led to the Jan. 9 arrest warrant.
The boys’ mother told police that her children “were groomed and sexually abused by Timothy,” and that Busfield had told them to call him “Uncle Tim.” She also added that before Busfield joined the show, it had been common practice for the crew to pass out iPads for the parents of the child actors on set to be able to monitor their children, but that ended after Busfield came on board.
SL told his therapist that Busfield had “touched both his ‘genitalia’ and ‘bottom.”” During the boys’ interviews with police, SL said that Busfield began abusing him when he was seven years old. Both boys described multiple incidents where they say Busfield sexually abused them for several years.
When Busfield was interviewed by police, according to the warrant affidavit, he “acknowledged to the police in a phone interview that he probably tickled the boys, describing the set as a ‘playful environment,’” and “suggested that the allegations were a form of revenge by the boys’ mother after the children were terminated from the show,” reported The New York Times.
The latest update on the case was reported by People magazine on Monday evening, noting that Busfield had yet to be located in the three days since his arrest warrant was issued.
The U.S. Marshals Service was called in by the APD to help find Busfield and execute the arrest warrant, an APD spokesperson confirmed to People. The spokesperson also confirmed that Busfield had not been “located, detained, or arrested,” the report added.
