Updated: Army Soldier Charged for Meeting 14-year-old Taney County Girl for Sex

Detectives say they found the man by waiting for him at airport

February 28, 2011|Emily Rittman, Joel Girdner

Taney County, Mo — An army soldier, Daryl Sage Waldron, 27, is charged with four counts of statutory rape. A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper says Waldron flew from North Carolina to an airport in Springfield. They say he rented a car to pick up a 14-year-old girl for sex. While law enforcement across the Ozarks searched for the girl, investigators say the pair spent eight days together.

Officers used the girl’s cell phone to try and track her and Waldron’s locations. On February 23 after she was dropped off near the Post Office in Ridgedale, Mo. detectives found the girl. Detectives brought her to the Greene County Advocacy Center. They say she admitted to meeting Waldron on the social networking website, Myspace, when she was a 13-year-old. She reportedly told officers they met before and after her 14^th birthday.

Officers say they confronted Waldron at a rental car check-out counter at the Springfield-Branson National Airport. After reading him his rights, officers say Waldron confessed to meeting the girl in October of last year at the Radisson Hotel in Branson for sex. They say he also admitted he had sex with her at the Fall Creek Resort in Branson during the week of February 15-23 of this year.

Waldron is in the Taney County jail held on a $500,000.00 cash or surety bond. He cannot have contact with the victim or children or possess any weapons or intoxicants. Prosecutors say the defendant is a “flight risk” because of nature of charges and his ability to flee the country as a member of the military.

In nearby Webster County parents' concerns about similar cases brought them to "Eyes Wide Open. Know What Your Kids Know" a seminar to teach parents what their kids know about technology. "If you don't know how to text you need to learn, if you don't know how to IM, instant message, you need to learn," Tom Durkin from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office told the crowd. Durkin recommended parents send a message in each technology their kids use to let them know it's not a place they can live without parents.

“My fourth grader wants a cell phone apparently everyone else has one,” mother Angela Baker said. She says she isn't ready to let her kids use cell phones or go online because they are too young. After the seminar, she says when they do get phones at bed time they will be in her hands. "We don't let the computer in the rooms,” Baker said. “It’s in the living room in a central location."

If convicted Waldron won't be the first to target a preteen on a social network. Law enforcement warns he also wouldn't be the last. They tell parents to communicate to their children that innocent pictures can be used for not so innocent reasons. Durkin told the crowd a story about not allowing his daughter to post pictures from a slumber party. "What you’re wearing is not illegal, it’s not immoral but it is alluring to predators,” Durkin said. “I told her save me the argument only your friends can see it because I know better."

The attorney general's office wants parents to discuss predators "grooming" their victims. They say they will give the child compliments and make them feel like they understand them like no one else. They say the false sense of trust breaks down suspicions and defenses.

The seminar also suggested parents know their children's passwords and make sure they are "friends" with them online to view their activity. Organizers say kids need to use the most secure privacy settings to not allow strangers to learn identifying information from pictures or posts.

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