Two jailed over alleged sexual abuse

[BERIGAN]

I just saw a story on the local station....Something not mentioned in the story below was that she saw man say to the little girl, are you looking for a new Mommy??

Two jailed over alleged sexual abuse

The Associated Press

EVERGREEN -- A 58-year-old man and 40-year-old woman are in police custody and the possible sexual abuse of a toddler and a teenage boy is being investigated thanks to the diligence of an Atlanta woman who pressed authorities to look into the case.

District Attorney Tommy Chapman said the man identified himself as Jack Wiley and was charged Friday with failing to register as a sex offender, and the woman, who said her name was Glenna Faye Marshall, was charged with providing false information. Chapman said both had given investigators several false names.

"We do not know at this time the true identities of either of these people," Chapman said.

He said one of the names the man gave authorities was that of a sex offender.

The two are possibly father and daughter and were arrested after Tracie Lee Dean of Atlanta saw a 3-year-old girl alone in an Evergreen convenience store on Jan. 15, Chapman said.

Dean told the Mobile Register she became suspicious and was compelled to act after she saw the child's behavior and the vacant look in her eyes.

Chapman said Dean's persistence led to the discovery of a suspected case of child abuse described as one of the most severe in the county.

"We believe the 17-year-old boy is a victim of sexual abuse," he said, "and a doctor who examined the 3-year-old girl said there was evidence she was repeatedly raped."

Dean copied the license plate number on the man's older Suburban as he left the store with the girl, but a 911 dispatcher told her everything checked out with the car.

Haunted by the girls' eyes, Dean did some Internet checking for missing and exploited children and found a girl in Ohio that resembled the child.

She called Ohio authorities and a national hot line for missing children before finally contacting the detective working the Ohio case, but Dean felt no one was taking her seriously.

"I called the John Walsh show ("America's Most Wanted"), "Crimestoppers" and finally I had the tag run," she said. "It came back to the 2001 Honda. It didn't check out. On Thursday, I called the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, and asked if they could tell me who responded to the 911 call. I asked them to look at the store's videotape. They said they needed a court order. I have no doubt in my mind why we have so many missing and exploited children in this country."

Dean then took matters into her own hands, calling the store and driving back to Evergreen Thursday with some friends. She was looking at the security video when Evergreen officer Brian Davis walked in by chance. He wrote a report and started looking for the girl and man.

Davis found the man living with the woman and two children in a squalid home along a remote stretch of U.S. 84, Chapman said. He said the children both appear to be severely traumatized and are in state custody.

Dean said she just knew something was wrong that day in the store.

"I cried when I left there that Sunday," she said. "I'm crying right now just thinking of it. I had to go through hell before anyone would listen to me. I thought I was going crazy. I'm just glad she's safe."

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/p.../601260336/1009

Edited January 26, 2006 by BERIGAN