Ava, MO. – A recent announcement from law enforcement detailed an event where a pair of local men were arrested on kidnapping charges for aiding a teen in absconding from their parents and fleeing to Tennessee.
According to the probable cause statement, the missing 16-year-old juvenile was reported on January 21st. During the investigation, it was found the teen had been communicating with Zevi Whittingham, a 22-year-old from West Plains. The same male had been stopped by law enforcement earlier that day.
Information pieced together from that stop led to a cell phone ping of Whittingham’s phone. This led to Whittingham, the juvenile, and a passenger, William Sims, 19 of Mammoth Spring, AR., being found and detained in Murfreesboro, TN.
Sims and Whittingham were extradited back to Missouri and were formally arrested on a felony charge of Kidnapping. They are each being held on a $50,000 bond.
