Overview
- Flagler County deputies stopped a Ford F-150 on Dec. 31 after a suspicious-activity call and found an 11-year-old reported missing from St. Johns County along with a 15-year-old.
- Darnell Hairston, 60, was arrested after attempting to flee and trying to grab a deputy’s gun during the stop, according to the sheriff’s office.
- Search warrants on Hairston’s truck, his Hastings residence, and a Flagler Estates campsite recovered duct tape, video equipment, and weapons consistent with the boy’s account.
- The child told deputies he was lured to the campsite, choked until unconscious, threatened with a knife and a firearm, bound with shoelaces and an extension cord, and forced to hide under a blanket during travel.
- Hairston is now held without bond on new charges including kidnapping, aggravated child abuse, battery by strangulation, and robbery with a deadly weapon, while the 15-year-old is in juvenile custody on vehicle- and flight-related counts and is being investigated as a possible co-conspirator.