An Arkansas man was arrested last week after investigators found a 5-year-old girl hidden in a secret closet in his home.
Jon Thompson, 40, has been charged with false imprisonment, child endangerment, and interference in custody. He was already out on bond on drug charges at the time.
Tontitown Police officers arrived at Thompson’s home last Thursday with a search warrant in hand, USA Today reported. The warrant, an arrest report says, was in service of a judge’s order to remove the little girl from the house.
When officers arrived, Thompson came to the window and said the girl wasn’t there, refusing to let the officers inside. As the officers continued to talk with the criminal, he finally admitted she was, in fact, inside, and let them in.
When the officers heard noises coming from a bedroom, Thompson led them to the bedroom, got down on his knees inside a closet and began clearing boxes and clothing piled on the floor. Then he pulled off a board nailed to the wall “to get access to a small space” behind the closet.
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Body camera footage Thompson eventually bring the girl out of the hidden space.
“She was very emotional when she came out and pretty scared,” Detective Keith Lindley said. “He had instructed her not to make a sound or reveal she was back there.”
The arrest report described the hidden space as “six to eight feet at the widest point going down to maybe two to four feet at the other.”
Lindley said the girl didn’t appear to be physically harmed and was placed into the custody of the state Department of Human Services.
Thompson was given a paltry $5,000 bond at his court appearance on Monday, when he entered a not guilty plea.
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