Kennewick, Wash. – A man accused of raping his daughter has been arrested in Hong Kong, ending a manhunt that began after the girl’s telling of her story on TV linked the case to some of the Internet’s most notorious molestation videos.
Police apprehended Kenneth John Freeman, 44, at the Hong Kong airport Tuesday night after he arrived from mainland China. Officials said the avid bodybuilder injured four police officers while resisting arrest.
Freeman fled the United States last year, months after his daughter told her mother that he had assaulted her four years earlier.
The girl appeared on “America’s Most Wanted” to talk about the case. Tips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after the show helped the center identify the girl as the victim in a series of child pornography videos, according to the Marshals Service.
“We’re rejoicing today. An awful man, an evil man has been captured,” Chris Peale, the girl’s stepfather, said at a news conference in Kennewick as he glanced at his now-17-year-old stepdaughter, who smiled but did not speak.
Additional nation/world news briefs:
NEWARK, N.J.
Gay ex-governor enters seminary
The nation’s first openly gay governor has become an Episcopalian and been accepted into a seminary, according to a published report.
Former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, raised as a Roman Catholic, was received into the Episcopal religion Sunday at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York, said the Rev. Kevin Bean, church vicar.
McGreevey has entered the church’s “discernment” phase, which usually precedes seminary work, Bean told The Star-Ledger of Newark. It’s unclear whether McGreevey hopes to become a priest. He did not return several messages Wednesday.
McGreevey, 49, shocked the nation in August 2004 by proclaiming himself “a gay American” who had an extramarital affair with a male aide. The aide claims he was sexually harassed by the former governor.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.
Heat kills toddler left in father’s car
A 1-year-old boy died after being left alone in a car for hours as temperatures soared into the high 80s, and his father was charged with negligent homicide, police said.
Timothy Reid was found unresponsive Tuesday afternoon, nearly seven hours after his father, Robert Reid, 43, parked the car at work, officials said. Emergency workers pronounced the toddler dead at the scene and said the temperature in the car was 142 degrees.
“The punishment is done regardless of what happens in court,” Lt. Tim Carroll said Wednesday. “He is torn up. He reacted the way a parent should react who has lost a child.”
Police said Reid took his three other children, ages 6, 10 and 12, to school Tuesday and had intended to take Timothy to day care, but instead he went to work and left the boy in the car seat, investigators said.
