Isle of Wight, Va. - “I have absolute faith that one day we will catch this guy,” says Lt. Tommy Potter with the Isle of Wight Sheriff’s Office.
Lt. Potter’s faith has lasted more than a year and a half now -- faith that the man who abducted and sexually assaulted a young girl will finally be caught.
In October 2013 an 11-year-old girl was at her bus stop in Carrollton when a strange man pulled up -- forced her onto the floor board, drove her around and sexually assaulted her twice. In the end, he dropped her back off near her home.
After eighteen months, hundreds of tips, and dozens of state and federal investigators helping out, there is still no arrest.
“To say that we have physically followed up and eliminated all 750 some leads, that's a big task especially for an agency our size,” Potter says.
His agency is not giving up -- and neither is the community. Potter says about once a week someone calls in a tip.
“You get away with it when people forget about it,” he says. “Here in Isle Of Wight County that's not happening.”
After all this time, Potter says the man they're looking for most likely altered his appearance, but there's one thing Potter says he can't change.
“The one thing you can't change is freckles,” he says. “I mean her exact words were ‘freckles, freckles, freckles, everywhere’. That can't change.”
The man’s face that continues to haunt him as well as the family whose lives are forever changed.
“This is definitely by no means a cold case,” Potter says. “As long as I’m here, as long as Sheriff Marshall is here this is not a cold case and will not become a cold case. Our goal is to solve this.”
If you have any information that can help investigators solve this call the Isle of Wight Sheriff's Office.
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