Published: June 15, 2009 10:13 pm      

Possible child abductor sought

Man was last seen in red Chevy pickup in Tipton’s Liberty subdivision

TIPTON – Tipton County sheriff deputies are searching the county for a possible child abductor, Sheriff Frank Fritch said Monday.

The sheriff department received a call Friday that a man in his late 40s or early 50s pulled up to a 9-year-old girl at her home in Liberty subdivision and asked her to get into his truck. The girl refused and the man drove off, Fritch said.

The girl described the man as white with black hair, glasses and possibly a tattoo on his left forearm. He drove off in what deputies think was a red Chevrolet pickup. The truck could have been an S-10 model, either with four doors or an extended cab, and it had tinted windows.

Fritch said the report was the only one of that man during the weekend, but there was a similar complaint about two weeks ago. Descriptions of the suspect and his pickup truck were the same.

Investigators have not been able to find the pickup. Fritch said the sheriff department does not have any reason to believe the suspect lives in the subdivision, which is at the corner of 700 North and Ind. 19 in northern Tipton County.

Fritch said the department has contacted the Howard County Sheriff’s Department to be on the lookout.

Anyone with information about the case can contact the Tipton County Sheriff’s Department at (765) 675-7004 or the crime hotline at (765) 675-2233.

• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at (765) 454-8570 or at daniel.human@ kokomotribune.com.