Missing boy found; Woman held on child abduction warrant
Had it not been for a sharp surveillance video, no one may ever have known what happened to 11-year-old Jacob Southern, police said Tuesday.
The Pershing Elementary fifth-grader was reported missing when he failed to come inside from play Monday night.
Muskogee Police found him about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, sitting on a fence post in an alley in downtown Tulsa with a man and woman, said Lt. Bobby Lee.
The woman, Felisha Marie Wilham, 21, was booked into a Tulsa jail on a warrant for child abduction, Lee said. The man with her was not arrested.
Police began their search for the youngster at mid-morning Tuesday after the manager of Whispering Pines Apartments discovered a surveillance camera had captured the image of Jacob leaving the apartment parking lot with a woman shortly before 6 p.m. Monday.
Residents of the complex identified the woman as Wilham, who they said had been at the complex on occasion.
The video shows a woman and Jacob walking across the parking lot, across a grassy area and around a building toward Walmart.
Jacob’s 8-year-old sister Kaylee knew Wilham from having seen her before at the complex.
“She’s really nice,” she said Tuesday morning. “Jacob and her are really close friends. She came by (the apartment) the other day, wanting to check something on the computer.”
Wilham had told people at the complex that she was homeless, said Whitney Lund, Jacob’s cousin.
Donna Southern said Jacob “is friends with everyone from 21 down to 2. He’s always had a good heart.”
However, he knows to come home at night, he wouldn’t just run off, she said.
Lee said officers were familiar with Wilham. Muskogee County/City Detention Facility records show she was released on bond less than 30 minutes before the video shows her leaving Whispering Pines with Jacob.
She had been jailed Friday on a charge of second-degree burglary. Lee said two juveniles were with her when she was arrested on that charge.
Lee said after officers identified Wilham from the surveillance video, they learned that her boyfriend was in Tulsa and was scheduled to pick up a pair of new eyeglasses in downtown Tulsa on Tuesday afternoon.
Lee and the officers with him headed toward the address given them. “I saw them sitting in the alley on a fence post,” Lee said. He said he jumped out of the car, grabbed up the little boy and shoved him in the patrol car before questioning Wilham.
She gave officers a statement that they knew at the time was false and arrested her on a warrant issued by Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore.
Jacob was unharmed.
Donna Southern said outside the police department later Tuesday that she had not yet had an opportunity to talk with Jacob about his night away from home.
“I just grabbed him and hugged him,” she said. “We’ll find out later what happened.”
Jacob was inside the police station, being questioned by officers.
Lee said officers are trying to learn why Jacob left with Wilham. On the video, he appears to be willing to go with her. They paused at one point and the woman motioned for the boy to “come on” before they continued on their walk.
Lee said he believes the woman and boy hitchhiked from Walmart to the Pilot truck stop on U.S. 69 and from there to Tulsa, where they spent the night in abandoned house.
Wilham is a “Juggalette,” and her boyfriend is a “Juggalo,” members of a gang that follow a punk rock band called Insane Clown Posse, which is cropping up throughout the region. The gang mostly commits thefts and other such crimes, Lee said.
What Wilham and her boyfriend’s intentions were with Jacob is not known, Lee said. He is just glad this story had a happy ending.
http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/local/local_story_090003950.html
