Missing Indiana Girl Found in Basement – Authorities Believe The Suspect Has Killed Before

Crime

An Indiana man arrested on charges of kidnapping, beating and sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl is also being investigated in an unsolved double-murder case in Delphi, Indiana.

James Brian Chadwell was arrested in Lafayette on April 20, 2021.

According to court documents, police knocked on Chadwell’s door on April 19 and found a 9-year-old girl locked in the basement.

Police said Chadwell allegedly lured the girl into the residence by inviting her to pet his dogs. The girl told police Chadwell attacked her inside the house, strangled her to the point of passing out, and she said she woke up with most of her clothing gone.

The girl was reported missing by her parents at about 7 p.m. the same day. Officers visited the house earlier in the evening during a search for the girl. However, Chadwell told officers the girl had been there earlier but left. Officers later returned to the house and asked for permission to look in the house.

The girl was found crying in a room in the basement locked with a chain lock. She was hospitalized, where she said Chadwell sexually assaulted her.

In addition to bruises, scratches and other markings on her body, she had what appeared to be dog bites on her legs, according to investigators.

Chadwell was booked in the Tippecanoe County jail on charges of attempted murder; child molestation; attempted child molestation; kidnapping; criminal confinement; battery and strangulation.

Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby said investigators were aware of Chadwell in the Delphi investigation. He did not offer further details.

“The information [regarding Mr. Chadwell] has been shared with us and our investigators are looking into him,” Leazenby said in a statement.

Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, were found murdered in a wooded area off a hiking trail in Delphi in February 2017. Their bodies were found a day after they were reported missing. Their causes of death were not released.

2 thoughts on “Missing Indiana Girl Found in Basement – Authorities Believe The Suspect Has Killed Before

  1. Mothers and Gents,,If you truly love your kids.. Don’t let them go anywhere with out an Adult. An adult who also truely loves and protect them from “SATAN’S MINIONS ”
    I pray for the little girl to heal.And if this man walks away. Then the judges are child molesters too.

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