Left: Jon Thompson (Washington County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Images of the closet where Thompson kept his daughter (Tontitown Police Department).
An Arkansas father who kept his daughter hidden in a “void” in his home to keep the state from taking custody of her was sentenced to prison.
Jon Thompson, 42, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, interference with custody, possession of drug paraphernalia, criminal possession of body armor, and failure to appear the day before he was set to go to trial, according to KFSM, a local CBS affiliate. He was also charged with endangering the welfare of a minor, but that charge was dropped as part of the plea deal.
Thompson was arrested in November 2023 after a custody dispute over his then-5-year-old daughter culminated in police officers surrounding his home, accompanied by authorities from the state’s Department of Human Services. Officers found Thompson’s daughter hidden in a small, “triangle-shaped void,” according to court documents.
