Overview
- A judge on Jan. 4 ordered 60-year-old Darnell Hairston held without bond following his Dec. 31 arrest in Flagler County after deputies rescued a missing 11-year-old during a traffic stop prompted by a citizen tip.
- Deputies said the child, missing for three days, reported being lured to a Flagler Estates campsite, choked unconscious, threatened with a knife and a firearm, bound with shoelaces and an extension cord, and gagged with duct tape.
- Search warrants executed on Hairston’s truck, his Hastings residence, and the campsite recovered duct tape, surveillance equipment, and weapons that authorities say align with the victim’s statements.
- Hairston faces charges including kidnapping of a child under 13, aggravated child abuse, battery by strangulation, and robbery with a deadly weapon, in addition to resisting an officer with violence and attempting to take a deputy’s firearm.
- A 15-year-old who fled the stop in Hairston’s F-150 and rammed a patrol vehicle was arrested and is in juvenile custody as a possible co-conspirator, and detectives are also examining a potential link to a separate alleged sex crime in St. Johns County.