No charges after 8-year-old girl taken to South Whidbey woods

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 14, 2026

A vacationer who met an 8-year-old girl alone at night on a Coupeville street and drove her 20 miles away to a dark and muddy South Whidbey woods without permission from her parent on March 23 will not face criminal charges.

The girl was eventually found asleep, unharmed, in the man’s car after he returned to Coupeville, although he admitted to smoking marijuana next to her. By then, the girl’s mother had reported her missing, and police, firefighters and a bloodhound were out looking for her.

Deputies arrested the man — who had a knife and condoms on him — on suspicion of kidnapping, and he spent the night in jail. He was released the next morning after authorities concluded that, despite the unusual circumstances, the available evidence did not satisfy the legal definition of kidnapping.

In fact, after additional investigation, a child forensic interview and a medical exam, investigators determined they would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the man committed any crime at all. The News-Times obtained documents through public records requests.

The News-Times isn’t naming the man, a Seattle-area resident, since he wasn’t charged and a judge did not determine that there was probable cause to believe he committed a crime. The News-Times was unable to reach him for comment.

Island County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Laura Twitchell wrote in a notice of charging decision that the facts provided by the sheriff’s office were insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the man intentionally abducted the child, a required element of kidnapping.

In state law, “abduct” means to “restrain a person by either (a) secreting or holding him or her in a place where he or she is not likely to be found, or (b) using or threatening to use deadly force.” According to the charging decision, the child later described him as “a nice man” and the trip as “a nice 30 minute drive.”

Officials from the sheriff’s office agreed with Twitchell, saying they also couldn’t point to any law that the man broke, partly because lawmakers likely couldn’t predict such unusual circumstances.

The documents state that seven deputies — including an off-duty deputy with a bloodhound and corrections deputies — from the Island County Sheriff’s Office responded after a Coupeville woman reported at 8:30 p.m. that her 8-year-old daughter, who has mental disabilities, was missing from her home. The girl’s bedroom window was open and a comforter and pillow were missing from her bed.

Just before 1 a.m., firefighters located the girl sleeping inside the man’s car on Front Street. A deputy then observed the man enter his nearby Front Street lodging and retrieve the girl’s blanket and pillow, according to the report.

The man told deputies he had found the girl several hours earlier walking alone in the dark, carrying the blanket and pillow. He said she wanted to go to her sister’s house, so he walked her there. For reasons that remain unclear, they returned to Front Street, according to the deputy.

The man said he briefly took the girl into his Airbnb, leaving her blanket and comforter there because he planned to let her sleep on the couch overnight rather than contact authorities immediately. He said he conducted a quick online search and felt it was lawful to allow her safe haven “for a night at most.” Investigative reports, however, indicate he gave contradictory statements about whether the girl entered the Airbnb.

The man, an amateur wildlife photographer, said he drove to Putney Woods on South Whidbey to take photos in the dark that night. He said he knows the woods, which is one of his favorite spots. The girl pleaded to go along, he said, so he took her with him. Putney Woods is about 24 miles from Coupeville, roughly a 30-minute drive.

The man said he took the girl into the woods — which were closed at night — but then realized it was too muddy to walk, so they drove back to Coupeville.

The man told a deputy that he “didn’t know where this was going” and that he was going to find an adult to hand her over to “first thing in the morning.”

Investigators later learned that while driving back to Coupeville, the man saw firefighters searching for the girl around midnight but didn’t stop and tell them about the girl.

“If (his) intentions were to help this girl, why did he not report it right away, when he saw first responders actively looking for someone?” Deputy Trevor Adams wrote in his report.

The man had the girl with him for roughly four hours and “even stated he planned on not contacting anyone else until the next morning,” the report states.

“This is so far outside the realm of what the average human being would do,” Adams wrote.

The deputies determined there was probable cause to believe the man committed kidnapping in the second degree. He was booked into the jail but later released after it was determined his actions didn’t meet the legal definition of the crime.

After he was arrested, deputies found condoms, a knife, pepper spray, joints and a cell phone on him. In his backpack they found more condoms, sexual lubricant, another knife, a second cell phone, a hard drive, SD cards, a laptop and a digital camera.

The reports state that the girl was unable to provide any clear statements about what had occurred because of her mental disabilities. She was taken to Providence Medical Center for a sexual assault exam.

A report from the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab found that no male DNA was found on her body or her underwear.

The girl did not disclose anything about the incident to CPS investigators, law enforcement or during a child forensic interview held on April 30, according to the prosecutor’s notice of charging decision.

Her mother sent an email to Child Protective Services investigators stating that the girl said “a nice man.” The girl said he told her he would not leave her until someone “who cared for her” came to get her.

The notice states that “she does not think he should go to jail.”