A registered sex offender’s jailed in Des Moines today after police say he abducted a toddler and molested her at a public library. Police Sergeant Todd Dykstra says it began around 11 this morning when police got a call from the Des Moines Public library “regarding a small child screaming in the library bathroom.”
Police arrived and arrested James Carson Effler, Junior, who was found in the library bathroom with the toddler after they heard her screaming. Effler was taken to the Des Moines police department and charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree sexual assault, and failure to comply with Iowa’s sex-offender registry.
Sergeant Dykstra says Effler has a criminal record including sex offenses and other crimes. The incident occurred after a caregiver who’d taken the 2-year-old to the downtown library was using a computer and the girl wandered off. The caregiver asked librarians to help search for her, and they called police.
He says it wasn’t long before they were able to find her — because of her screams.
Police say the Effler was at the library and used a toy the child had dropped to entice the toddler into the bathroom. The man’s a convicted sex offender and in addition to kidnapping and sexual assault, he faces felony charges that he gave an incorrect address, to the state’s sex-offender registry.