San Diego

Acting on an anonymous tip Thursday, police found the body of Louis Patrick Novak in a house where a SWAT team had searched for him the day before, according to the coroner’s office. He had shot himself to death, authorities said.

The house in the 1700 block of 32nd Street was the scene of a seven-hour siege as officers and SWAT officers searched for Novak, 37, a defendant in a rape and child-molestation trial. Officers finally stormed the house but did not find him, said David Cohen, a spokesman for the Police Department.

Novak was named in a “no-bail warrant alleging a variety of sexual offenses,” Cohen said.

Police received a call Thursday that there were people outside the house. When officers arrived about 10:30 a.m., they saw a man and a woman pulling away in a car. They stopped the couple, who told them that Novak may have hidden in a crawl space beneath a hot tub in the back of the house. The pair are not suspects.

Detectives found Novak’s body and an automatic pistol in the crawl space, according to the coroner’s office, which said Novak had a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the head. Authorities had not established the time of death as of late Thursday.

Novak’s trial had been scheduled to begin next Friday on charges of molesting a 5-year-old girl and raping a woman in San Diego, said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Williams.

While Novak was free on $100,000 bail, he allegedly molested two 9-year-olds in El Cajon, Williams said. The no-bail warrant was issued March 21.