forked from mozilla/OpenOpenNewsNews
-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
Copy pathusatoday.txt
36 lines (22 loc) · 2.72 KB
/
usatoday.txt
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
Sex offender charged in Fla. girl's death
Police have arrested a registered sex offender for the murder of 8-year-old girl who was kidnapped from a Jacksonville, Florida Walmart Friday night. The sheriff's department says the suspect was just released from jail May 31.
5:14 p.m. EDT June 22, 2013
(Photo: Will Dickey AP)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Charish Perriwinkle had gone shopping with her mother in Wal-Mart when she went missing.
Police say registered sex offender Donald James Smith befriended the girl and her mother.
Police say Smith told Charish's mother he'd buy her a snack and then took off with the girl.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a registered sex offender is charged with murder in the death of a Florida girl abducted while shopping with her mother.
Mike Williams of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said Saturday that Donald James Smith befriended 8-year-old Charish Perriwinkle and her mother Friday night at a dollar store and offered to buy them clothes at Wal-Mart.
Williams says Smith took them to Wal-Mart, then told the mother he would buy them a snack at the front of the store. Instead, authorities say Smith walked out with Charish.
A tip led investigators to a wooded area where they found Charish's body Saturday morning.
Williams says Smith was released from jail May 31 and met with police Friday morning when officers visited to check his address, as required by state law.
An Amber Alert was issued for Charish Perriwinkle after she went missing Friday night. Sheriff's office spokesman Shannon Hartley said Saturday that the 56-year-old man had been taken into custody after officers surrounded his van.
About an hour later, authorities said the girl's body was found at a church.
"A very difficult time, obviously, for everyone involved," Hartley told WJXT-TV (http://bit.ly/12h5zrg).
Hartley did not immediately return messages left Saturday by The Associated Press. The sheriff's office directed inquiries to their Facebook page, which said Charish's body had been found and authorities were beginning a murder investigation.
The sheriff's office scheduled a news conference for Saturday afternoon.
In 2009, a 7-year-old northeast Florida girl was abducted while she walked home from school. Police later found Somer Thompson's body in a Georgia landfill. A man who lived with his parents in Somer's Orange Park neighborhood pleaded guilty in 2012 to kidnapping, raping and murdering the girl and was sentenced to life in prison.
Somer's mother told The Times-Union that she was sickened by the news of Charish's abduction.
"Her (Charish's mother) nightmare has just begun," Diena Thompson said.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.