More Charges Filed After Missing Teen Found In Alexander County

Two men charged earlier this week after a missing Wilkes County teen was found in Northern Alexander County are now facing charges including kidnapping.

The Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office charged Steven Anthony Steelman, 26, of West Jefferson, and Jerry Dearl Carpenter, 45, of Taylorsville with first-degree kidnapping. Warrants state that Steelman and Carpenter unlawfully removed the 13-year-old from one place to another without consent of the child’s parents or legal guardians “for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a felony, delivering a controlled substance to someone 13 years of age or younger.” Reports indicate that Carpenter and Steelman picked up the 13-year-old at the Stuckey’s Travel Plaza on U.S. 421 near the N.C. 16 intersection in Wilkesboro about 1 a.m. Monday and took her in a car to Carpenter’s residence on Vashti Road in Northern Alexander County.

Ivestigators don’t believe the juvenile knew the two men or had ever had any previous contact or communication with them. All three, the suspects and the teen were found at that Vashti residence early Monday evening. As previously reported, the Alexander Sheriff’s Office charged Steelman and Carpenter with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. They were held in the Alexander County Detention Center before being transferred to Wilkes County.