A Cedar Rapids Police detective and a former Cedar Rapids Postal Inspector are being honored today with a national award for their work on the Jetseta Gage case. Gage is the 10-year-old Cedar Rapids girl who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 2005.
Convicted sex offender Roger Bentley was found guilty in the case and sentenced to life in prison. Bentley’s brother James, meanwhile, was accused of taking sexually explicit photos of Jetseta and her baby sister and taking those photos with him to Arkansas. Charity Hansel, a sex crimes investigator with Cedar Rapids Police, and Troy Raper, a former Cedar Rapids Postal Inspector, played critical roles in James Bentley’s conviction in federal court. He was sentenced to 100 years in prison in June 2007.
Today, Hansel and Raper are among 15 law enforcement officers from across the country being recognized at the 13th Annual National Missing and Exploited Children Awards in Washington, D.C.