Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NAPPANEE - A Nappanee man arrested last Thursday allegedly communicated with a Georgia girl via the Internet before allegedly traveling there and molesting her.
Nappanee police arrested Gregory N. Chase, 31, of 206 E. Broad St., Nappanee, on an Indiana fugitive from justice warrant. He is being held in Elkhart County Jail on $50,000 bond on felony charges of child molest and enticing a child for indecent purposes.
Police allege the man met a teenager in an online chat room, drove to Georgia and molested the girl.
Using his account information, obtained from the 13-year-old victim, investigators in Coweta County, Ga., obtained a search warrant for Chase's America On Line account in Virginia. Using that information, Coweta County Detective Donna Sheain traced Chase to his Nappanee residence.
Nappanee police were faxed the charging information by a Georgia county det., then filed for an arrest warrant for Chase and a search warrant for his home.
Police took Chase's computer, disks, phone records and America On Line account information in the search, said Capt. Mike Anglin of the Nappanee Police Department.
Both investigators indicated the case was one of the first times they had dealt with Internet-related molestation.
"It's different, and I hope we don't see a lot of it," said Anglin. "This is stuff you read about happening somewhere else, not Nappanee."
