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Jarred Harrell (mugshot)

Jarred Harrell, a person of interest in the Somer Thompson murder, was extradited over night from Mississippi to Florida.  He is expected to make his first court appearance this morning to face charges of child pornography. Last Thursday, Florida Governor, Charlie Crist requested the extradition, and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour granted the request.  According to a press release from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, “Because the safety of all law enforcement officers involved and the successful extradition of this individual are of upmost importance, our agency will not reveal the exact date and time of the planned extradition.  In addition, if members of the media are able to obtain Harrell extradition timeline information from sources other than the CCSO, our agency will not respond to those related inquiries and will neither confirm nor deny the information.  Our agency will not divulge what law enforcement officers are part of the Harrell extradition process until after the process is complete. Once Jarred Harrell is safely transported to our jail facility here in Green Cove Springs, the media will be notified via an emailed release.  You will be provided ample notice post-arrival so that coverage arrangements can be made with the Clay County Clerk of Court for whatever court appearances may follow in the Clay County court system.  Our agency does not orchestrate “perp walks” of any kind and we have an enclosed sally port area through which defendants enter the jail.” Although we do not know the specific date Harrell will make an appearance in Florida, thankfully investigators are one step closer to possibly learning what happened to Somer.   Harrell has not yet been charged with Somer’s death.“

Clay County Sheriff Rick Besseler says Jarred Mitchell Harrell, 24, was arrested earlier this month and charged with 29 counts of child pornography.  He is named a formal person of interest in the Somer Thompson murder.  Harrell formerly resided in the neighborhood where Somer was abducted last fall as she walked home from school.  

Somer Thompson was abducted on October 19, 2009.  Just three days later, her body was found 50 miles away in a Georgia landfill.  Investigators traced the trash from her neighborhood in Orange Park, FL to the landfill.  Since then, more than one thousand tips have poured into “Team Somer,” a unit put together by investigators. 

According to the warrant released by the Clay County Sheriff’s office, on August 4, 2009, Jarred Harrell was asked to move out of his residence after his roommates found he was responsible for the theft of a roommate’s IPOD touch.  It appears Harrell mistakenly left his computer and a box of disks behind.  According to the warrant, “While Jarred was gone the roommates got into Jarred’s computer and searched for child pornography after being told Jarred had been caught viewing child pornography… They found a disk in Jarred’s box of CD’s with “don’t lose music” written on it.   A check of the CD revealed that there was a large quantity of child erotica and pornography on the disk. The following day (8-10-09), the computer was turned over to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. The computer was processed by the Office of The Attorney General Cyber Crimes Unit after a search warrant was obtained.  The forensic processing of the computer confirmed the existence of the child erotica and child pornography. There were 24 pictures and 5 movies containing child pornography.”

Please note, I left many disturbing details from the affidavit out of this post due to the graphic nature.

Jarred Harrell (mugshot from Clay County)

Clay County Sheriff Rick Besseler named a ‘person of interest’ tonight in the Somer Thompson case.  The Sheriff says Jarred Mitchell Harrell, 24, was arrested in Meridian, Mississippi, and is currently being held on a $1 million bail.  Harrell is not only a person of interest in the horrific abduction and murder of 7-year-old Somer Thompson, but he is also charged with 29 counts of child pornography.  Harold formerly resided in the neighborhood where Somer was abducted last fall as she walked home from school.  

According to the warrant released by the Clay County Sheriff’s office, Jarred Harrell was asked to move out of his residence on August 4, 2009 after his roommates found he was responsible for the theft of a roommate’s IPOD touch.  It appears Harrell messed up when he left his computer, and a box of compact disks behind.  According to the warrant, “While Jarred was gone the roommates got into Jarred’s computer and searched for child pornography.  They searched after they had been told that Jarred had been caught viewing child pornography… They had found a compact disk in Jarred’s box of CD’s with the writing “don’t lose music” on it. A check of the compact disk revealed that there was a large quantity of child erotica and pornography on the disk. The computer was turned over to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office the following day on 8-10-09.  The computer was processed by the Office of The Attorney General Cyber Crimes Unit after a search warrant was obtained.  The forensic processing of the computer revealed a large amount of child erotica and also child pornography.  There were 24 pornographic images of children and 5 moves that contained child pornography.”

Please note, I left many disturbing details from the affidavit out of this post due to the graphic nature. 

Remembering Somer Thompson

BACKGROUND

Stay tuned for more information as it develops…  

: Somer Thompson was abducted on October 19, 2009, and just three days later, her body was found 50 miles away in a Georgia landfill.  Investigators followed the trash from her neighborhood in Orange Park, FL the week she went missing to the landfill.  Since then, more than one thousand tips have poured into “Team Somer,” a unit put together by investigators.  At this point, Harrell has not been charged with murder, but it does seem that investigators are getting closer to finding answers about Somer’s case.