Somer Thompson Murder: Person of Interest Jarred Harrell Arrested with Child Porno
Photo: Somer Thompson.
Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler said Jarred Harrell, 24, who had lived in the girl's northeast Florida neighborhood was arrested in Mississippi Thursday on 29 charges of possession of child pornography. He has not been charged in Somer's death.
Photo: Jarred Harrell.
Somer vanished Oct. 19 as she was walking home from school, sparking a search that lasted for two days. Investigators sorted through more than 225 tons of garbage at a landfill some 50 miles away, across the state line in Georgia, before their worst fears were realized: Sticking out of the rubbish were a child's lifeless legs.
Authorities have checked into thousands of tips in the case in the nearly four months since, but no one has been charged in the killing.
Photo: Somer Thompson.
Harrell, who was arrested in Meridian, Miss., had lived until recently in a home near Somer Thompson's. Authorities searched that house Thursday. Deputies and an FBI forensics team were seen searching its front yard with rakes and shovels. The sheriff's office restricted access to at least a block around the home, which is in a neighborhood filled with tidy, ranch-style houses.
Photo: Somer's mother, Diena Thompson, speaks during a news conference on Oct. 21, 2009.
According to Harrell's arrest report, in August he was kicked out of an Orange Park apartment after a roommate thought he had stolen a cell phone. Harrell left behind a computer, and the roommates said they searched it because they thought Harrell had been using it to look at child porn, the report says.
Photo: Somer Thompson and her brother.
The roommates said they did find porn involving young girls and turned the computer and discs over to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office on Aug. 10. The materials were sent to state investigators, who confirmed the contents.
It is unknown when Harrell moved into the Orange Park house that was searched Thursday, or when he left the neighborhood.
Dawn Nuss, 39, whose 8-year-old daughter Christina used to walk home with Somer, said her daughter told her that Somer used to stop at the house and pet a white dog. No one would ever come out of the house. Sometimes Somer would run ahead of the children walking home and hide in a ditch.
Before the arrest was announced, the girl's mother, Diena Thompson, said she didn't want to get her hopes up that a break had been made in the case.
"I'm not speculating on anything. I don't want to get my hopes up and I don't want to get my hopes down," she told The Florida Times-Union. "I'm going to put my faith in God."
Harrell is being held on $1 million bond.
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October 23, 2009 - How Police Found Somer Thompson and How They Hope to Catch Her Killer
October 22, 2009 - Somer Thompson Body Likely Found, Says Florida Sheriff
October 21, 2009 - Search for Missing 7-Year-Old Somer Thompson Leads to Body in Landfill
October 20, 2009 - Somer Thompson Vanished After School, Seven-Year-Old Girl Missing in Orange Park, Fla.