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Sex Offender Sought In Abduction Arrested

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TBO.com staff report

Published: October 6, 2007

Updated: 10/06/2007 08:20 pm

Video: Suspect Arrested

BARTOW - The manhunt is over for a 46-year-old convicted sex offender authorities say kidnapped a 15-year-old Bartow teen and left her Tuesday at a Wal-Mart in DeFuniak Springs.

William Joe Mitchell was arrested Saturday morning by Virginia State Police, without incident, in Winchester, Va., at the Flying J Truck Stop.

William Joe Mitchell

An Amber Alert was issued for the teen early Monday after she ran away from home. She met Mitchell online about two weeks ago, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.

She told investigators Mitchell said he was 23. He picked her up at her home in Bartow and left with him between 2 and 3 a.m. that morning, officials said. They went north and spent the night in a Sunset Inn in Opp, Ala.

The next day, they Mitchell took her back to Florida to the Wal-Mart in DeFuniak Springs.

He told her to buy herself some new clothes so she could change her appearance, to then meet him in the CD section and not to call attention to herself or he would shoot her, officials said.

When she went to the CD section, police were called on a report of a suspicious person because she was lingering in the department. When an officer arrived, he recognized her picture from the Amber Alert.

Stay tuned to TBO.com for updates.

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