The Associated Press
WALLACE, Idaho- A 12-year-old girl was found bound and stabbed on the side of a mountain road, and authorities were searching for the girl’s father, a convicted sex offender who got out of prison last year.
John Rollins Tuggle, 37, is the only suspect in the case, Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds said.
“We have the whole world looking for him,” he said.
The girl was covered with stab wounds but was expected to live, officials said. She was listed in serious condition Friday at Sacred Heart Medical Center in nearby Spokane, Wash.
Tuggle contacted his ex-wife about 11 a.m. Wednesday about taking their daughter to a shopping mall. Instead, he took her to the Coeur d’Alene Mountains north of Wallace, Reynalds said.
People searching for a campsite found the girl Wednesday evening, in brush near a forest service road, north of Prichard about 80 miles from her home in Athol, Reynalds said. She spent four to five hours bleeding and alone before she was found.
Tuggle had not seen his daughter and her brother since a decade ago, when he went to prison to serve a nine-year sentence after being convicted of raping his then-wife’s 14-year-old sister, The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., reported Friday.
He was released from prison last year and went to live with his brother, Chris, in Hayden, Colo. Chris Tuggle told the newspaper he was surprised when his brother abruptly left on July 14 to see the children.
“He was supposed to be back Tuesday,” Chris Tuggle said.
Tuggle and the girl’s mother divorced while Tuggle was in prison.
John Tuggle was not under state supervision except for the requirement to register as a sex offender, which Colorado officials said he had done.