2 Men arrested in 16-years old Boy Murder and One arrested in Kidnapping and Raping 16-years old Girl

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2-men arrested in Marianna in connection to the murder of a 16-year-old boy in Fayetteville last month. On Thursday, the Fayetteville Police Department confirmed the arrests of Marianna residents 19-years old Christopher Johnson Jr., (for murder in the second degree and tampering with evidence) and 18-years old Paul Whitaker (for hindering apprehension or prosecution and accomplice to tampering with physical evidence). Fayetteville police found the unidentified 16-year-old dead at a residence on West Pleasant Woods Drive after responding to a shooting call on Friday, 10^th September 2021, at around 10:30 p.m. The Police Department also said officers immediately started life-saving efforts, but they were unable to save the victim. However, police say an initial investigation determined the incident was a homicide.

But police didn’t say how Johnson Jr. and Whitaker are connected to the crime. However, detectives requested arrested warrants for the pair through the Washington County Prosecutor’s Office after several weeks of investigation. On Monday, detectives with Fayetteville police, with the assistance of the US Marshals Service Western Arkansas Fugitive Task Force, along with the USMS Eastern Arkansas Fugitive Task Force (EATF), and the Marianna Police Department found and arrested Johnson Jr. and Whitaker in Marianna. FPD, the investigation is ongoing. Johnson Jr. and Whitaker are currently in jail at the Washington County Detention Center on bonds of $1,000,000 and $25,000, respectively. Point to be noted that Rogers Police said they arrested a man alleged of raping a child after smuggling her across the Southern border.

36-years old Hector Figueroa-Vasquez was booked on Oct. 9. A police report said he arranged to have a 16-year-old girl smuggled across the border and kept her on his property for several weeks. The girl informed authorities that Figueroa-Vasquez sexually abused her 3 separate nights. Figueroa-Vasquez hasn’t been formally charged and denied he raped the girl. Kevin Metcalf (the founder of the National Child Protection Task Force) said this situation is relatively common even in areas like Northwest Arkansas. Metcalf said, “These victims, they’re conditioned not to talk, to not go against their captors. They said, if you talk, nobody’s going to believe you, and we’re going to reveal what you’ve been doing”. Metcalf also said that people who think there may be child abuse happening near them should contact authorities.