Police Investigating If Sex Offender Found In Hut Had Help Eluding Capture
HANOVER TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – A registered sex offender was found hiding in a hut in the woods of Washington County Tuesday. Now, police are trying to determine if someone was helping him hide.
According to police, 64-year-old David David was prepared to stay in his hut in the woods for a while.
The hut was equipped with a heater, electricity, a police scanner and knives. David's hut was found in a wooded area behind Tuckers Church on Steubenville Pike in Hanover Township, Washington County.
The amount of supplies found at the site is raising some questions about whether or not he had help.
"Right now, we're just looking into all the angles on who may have been helping him, what's going on, what was going on during the period of time we lost contact with him?" Brooke County Sheriff Chuck Jackson said.
David had been hiding from police for two weeks, after he reportedly sexually assaulted a 3-year-old girl in Brooke County, W. Va. last month.
Police say David met the little girl because her father was working with him on a job site.
After the Brooke County Sheriff's Office began its search for David, they found out that he'd been convicted of a 1999 sexual offense as well.
David, who is on the Megan's Law website, is listed as non-compliant because he refused to tell police his current address.
Sheriff Jackson says he may have abused other children. Tuesday morning, his deputies found another potential victim, where the alleged abuse took place two years ago.
Jackson said David will be charged with being a fugitive from justice in West Virginia. He will eventually be extradited back to West Virginia and taken to the Northern Regional Jail, where he will face other charges.
David is currently in the Washington County Jail under $500,000 bond.
Jackson is asking anyone whose children may have had contact with David to talk to them.
UPDATE (Oct. 22 at 10 p.m.:
On Wednesday evening, Hanover Township firefighters torched David's hut in a controlled burn.
They set it ablaze after the suspect's family came to claim the supplies stashed there. Police say David put the hut together himself.
You May Also Be Interested In These Latest News Stories
Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter
