Police eye porn suspect in child’s slaying
Feb 24th, 2010 by Bilal Ali
A man authorities want to question in the slaying of a 7-year-old girl, whose body was dumped in a landfill, appeared in a Florida court Wednesday on child pornography charges after being extradited from Mississippi.
Jarred Harrell, 24, faces 29 counts of possession of child pornography in Clay County, Florida.
Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler has said Harrell is also sought for questioning in the abduction and murder of Somer Thompson, but has not said why.
Harrell was arrested in Meridian, Mississippi, by federal agents earlier this month, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist asked Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to extradite him. The arrest followed a search of Harrell’s residence, Clay County authorities said.
Somer Thompson was last seen in the Clay County town of Orange Park on October 19. Her body was found in a landfill in Folkston, Georgia, about 55 miles north of there. Authorities have not said how she was killed.
Somer’s 10-year-old sister told police that Somer had been in a fight with another girl at school earlier that day and that she brought up the subject while she and her brother walked Somer home from school. Somer ran off, apparently upset. The sister said she lost sight of Somer in a group of other children leaving the school, according to a police report.
Police said in October that witnesses including several children reported seeing her that day on a sidewalk in front of a vacant house that was being renovated following a fire.
At Wednesday’s hearing, a judge continued Harrell’s $1 million bond.