West Plains, MO. – A West Plains man was arrested on Sunday for molesting a child in 2017.
Joshua Abraham Ingram has been indicted by a grand jury on the charge of 1st-degree child molestation. He was arrested by the Howell County Sheriff’s Office on July 30, 2023.
According to the probable cause statement, the investigation into Ingram began on January 9, 2023, when Missouri Children’s Division received a Child Abuse Hotline Report from a mandated reporter that a female minor had been touched on her privates by the suspect on several occasions between 2017 and 2018 while at Ingram’s residence in West Plains.
Follow-up interviews with the child in January and February revealed further details on her depiction of the events. The child commented on how the suspect would molest her in the bathroom and in a bedroom. The child said Ingram would threaten her by saying “not to tell anyone or else, she would wish she didn’t.”
In a post-Miranda interview with Ingram by the West Plains Police Department, Ingram denied the allegations of ever touching the child’s private purposely or accidentally. He also told authorities he did not spend any time alone with her.
Ingram is currently being held in the Howell County Adult Detention Center on a $75,000 cash or corporate surety bond.
