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Missing Polk County Teenager Found Safe In Panhandle

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By BILLY TOWNSEND | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2007

Updated: 10/02/2007 09:54 pm

This map shows Bartow, the missing girl's hometown, and DeFuniak Springs, where she was found after going missing on Monday.

Videos: Suspect's Home Searched

BARTOW - The parents of a missing girl started their day draped in television microphones, pleading with a man they had never met to free their daughter and with a public they couldn't see to help find her.

William Mitchell

Both came to pass within three hours of that wrenching appearance.

By late afternoon, the father was preparing for a 400-mile trip to the town of DeFuniak Springs in the Florida Panhandle, where his 15-year-old daughter's ordeal ended peacefully inside a Wal-Mart just off Interstate 10.

"We got my baby back," the father said with a fist pump outside his house Tuesday afternoon.

The man accused of taking her is William Joe Mitchell, a 46-year registered sex offender, thought to live in Jacksonville. He remains at large. Police are looking for his black 2000 Chevrolet Lumina. The girl told investigators that Mitchell is armed with a handgun, said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

The girl told authorities he left her in the clothing department and said to find him by the electronics in five minutes. Mitchell said he would kill her if she drew attention, Judd said, but it was clear he meant to drop her off.

"He truly had her convinced that he was a young man in love with her," Judd said. "He, on the other hand, knew he was grooming a child to engage her in sexual conduct. Whether that occurred or not we don't know and we won't release."

The Tampa Tribune is not naming the girl because she was in the custody of a sex offender.

DeFuniak Springs Police Chief Mike Adkinson said the teen did not need any medical treatment when police found her inside the discount store. But investigators did not say if she was harmed in any way during the roughly 33 hours she spent with Mitchell, whom she met through the MySpace social networking Web site.

Through a series of online conversations, she appeared to fall in love with Mitchell, who is old enough to be her father, Judd said. The relationship was real enough for the 15-year-old Bartow girl that she sneaked out of her home to meet Mitchell about 3 a.m. Monday morning, Judd said.

She wasn't located until just after 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The Last Stop

By that time, the publicity from an Amber Alert issued overnight was peaking.

Police think Mitchell, who goes by the nickname "Billy Mitch," sought to get away from the girl and picked a busy Wal-Mart in DeFuniak Springs as the place to do it, Judd said.

The teen told police Mitchell took her inside the store and sent her to a clothing section while he went to look for CDs. In-store surveillance cameras show it was Mitchell who accompanied the girl into the store, according to a DeFuniak Springs news release.

Eventually, a shopper or Wal-Mart staff member noticed the school-age girl and called for police to check on her welfare.

Officer James Miller responded and immediately recognized her from television coverage and police bulletins, said Adkinson, the DeFuniak Springs police chief.

Adkinson would not talk about the girl's state of mind when the officer found her, but he said she made no effort to get away from the officer.

"She's definitely the victim of a crime," Adkinson said.

DeFuniak Springs is a town of about 15,000 and the county seat of Walton County. I-10 runs through the middle of town, and Wal-Mart is just off the highway.

Officers responded to the store in force, but they were unable to locate Mitchell. Adkinson said it would have been counterproductive to set up road blocks, given the number of potential escape routes.

Adkinson said the girl would be released to her parents as soon as they arrive in town.

"She's looking forward to that," he said.

Police said it appears that Mitchell and the girl spent part of Monday across the Florida state line in Covington County, Alabama, about 20 miles from DeFuniak Springs. It's not clear what ties Mitchell might have to the area.

The teen's family and Judd both addressed Mitchell directly during morning television appearances, urging him to let the girl go.

"Don't you do harm to this young lady," Judd said. "Let her go."

Later in the day, Judd expressed some backhanded appreciation.

"Thank you for not killing her," he said, addressing Mitchell in an afternoon news conference. "It's not as bad a day for you as it would have been."

But he made it clear that Mitchell faces serious charges when he is found. "She's safe. We're happy. He won't be," Judd said, adding he would like to see Mitchell spend the rest of his life in prison.

A Long Prison History

And he questioned why Mitchell was out of prison at all. State records indicate Mitchell has been sentenced to prison terms four times. The longest sentence was 10 years, served between 1982 and 1992 for armed robbery and other charges.

The most recent was four years for lewd and lascivious battery on a victim 12 to 15 years old. He was released Dec. 10 as a registered sex offender.

Most of Mitchell's crimes occurred in St. Johns County in northeast Florida.

Investigators think Mitchell drove from a home for sex offenders in Jacksonville to Polk County to pick up the girl.

Investigators originally thought she might have run away. However, her uncle, Samuel Creech, told the Tribune on Monday that she met someone in an Internet chat room and that person had called her cell phone before midnight Sunday.

Her parents discovered her missing at dawn.

Investigators say they soon found evidence the teen was communicating with Mitchell.

An Amber Alert was issued about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday

Creech described his niece, who attends Bartow High School, as "a regular kid" who spends a lot of time at home and on the computer.

She had been telling friends she was planning to run away, Creech said,

"If any of those kids had told their moms, we might have avoided this," Judd said.

Judd said there's no indication that the girl knew of Mitchell's background before she left with him.

"I'm not sure she knows she's abducted," Judd said early Tuesday. "She left because she was in love with his image created on MySpace."

Judd said investigators think Mitchell posed as a much younger man while online.

Judd's office has aggressively pursued illicit online behavior. In 2000, computer crime detectives helped track down and bring back a Polk teenager who left for Greece to be with an older man.

And last year, computer detectives posing as a teenager investigated the online advances of a Department of Homeland Security employee, leading to his arrest and a five-year prison sentence.

He said this week's case justifies that attention.

It also came on the day that Florida's sex predator penalties became among the nation's toughest, tripling maximum sentences to 15 years for soliciting minors for sex and possessing child pornography.

The law also requires offenders to register e-mail and instant message handles with authorities. That information will be shared with social networking sites like MySpace.

The law won't stop these incidents, Judd said. "But it will be helpful in making sure that person won't be out of prison to do it again," he said.

Description Of Suspect

Mitchell may be driving his black 2000 Chevrolet Lumina, tag number G025EL. Mitchell is white, 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs about 158 pounds and has several tattoos, deputies say.

On his left arm are the name Lisa and a cross. The word "love" is tattooed on the fingers of one hand.

On his right arm he has a tattoo with the words "me" and "Bill."

Anyone with information should call the Polk County Sheriff's Office at (863) 533-0344.

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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at (863) 284-1409 or wtownsend@tampatrib.com.

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