Fayetteville Offender Arrested After Police Find Missing Teen

Jimmie Capehart
Jimmie Capehart

FAYETTEVILLE -- Police said a search for a 15-year-old girl ended when officers found her unharmed with a registered sex offender.

Jimmy Capehart, 21, was arrested early Thursday morning in connection with fourth-degree sexual assault and failure to register as a sex offender. He was being held Thursday in the Washington County Detention Center on $10,000 bond.

Police said Capehart told them had consensual sex with the girl multiple times, according to a probable cause report. He said he didn't know she was 15 at first but continued to have sex with her after learning her age.

Fourth-degree sexual assault describes someone older than 20 having sex with a minor younger than 16 and is a felony. Capehart pleaded guilty to felony sexual indecency with a child in Washington County Circuit Court when he was 18.

Authorities searched for the girl after her mother reported her missing Wednesday evening.

About 9 p.m. police broadcast an alert called "A Child is Missing," a local counterpart to the wider AMBER, or America's Missin: Broadcasting Emergency Response, alert, through news and social media. The names of sexual assault victims are withheld under NWA Media policy.

Typically police wait longer to issue missing child alerts, but in this case there was reason to believe the girl was in danger, said Sgt. Craig Stout.

"She had not been seen since early that morning," Sgt. Craig Stout said, adding the girl had no history of missing school and had deactivated her Facebook profile and phone. "It started throwing up some big flags early on."

Investigators learned the girl might be with Capehart and looked for him at his registered address at 1295 W. Van Asche Drive, according to the report. They discovered he wasn't staying there.

Police eventually found the two at Motel 6 on North College Avenue. The alert was cancelled before 11 p.m.

Stout reminded parents to pay attention to their children's online activity and friends.

"These situations sometimes have really tragic outcomes," he said. "We're very fortunate we were able to locate her in a short amount of time."

NW News on 03/07/2014

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