POPLAR BLUFF, Mo., Oct. 25 (UPI) -- An hours-long hunt for a missing 5-year-old Missouri girl ended after police said they found her with a registered sex offender.
Abigail Bertholf was found Wednesday afternoon in southern Butler County with 46-year-old Jeffery Shelton, both of Poplar Bluff, KAIT-TV, Little Rock, Ark., reported.
A Butler County deputy stopped Shelton and arrested him without incident, Poplar Bluff police said.
The girl was said to be safe and was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation.
Shelton was charged with child kidnapping, domestic assault and two other felonies.
The child's mother, Eva Crawford, told investigators she last saw her daughter about 10 p.m. Tuesday. When she woke early Wednesday Crawford said Abigail was missing.
The girl was reported missing at 6:50 a.m.
A court document filed by the prosecutor's office said a woman saw the child with Shelton when she went to his house early Wednesday. He told the woman he was going to kill her and the girl, then bound her with duct tape and forced the child to expose herself.
The woman escaped and Shelton fled with the girl.
Missouri police records indicate Shelton was arrested in 1990 for the kidnapping, rape and sodomy of a 12-year-old Texas girl.
