An Arkansas father was recently arrested for allegedly shooting and killing a man who was found in the same vehicle as the father’s missing teenage daughter.
According to Fox News, 36-year-old Aaron Spencer reported that his 14-year-old daughter was missing last Tuesday, prompting the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office to dispatch deputies to his home. However, as the sheriff’s deputies were heading to Spencer’s home, they were notified that the Arkansas father had discovered his missing daughter in a vehicle with 67-year-old Michael Fosler.
Fox News reported that Spencer allegedly shot and killed the 67-year-old man during a confrontation with Fosler. As a result, the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Spencer on a preliminary charge of first-degree murder. According to the outlet, the father was booked at the Lonoke County Detention Center; however, he posted bail and was released one day later.
In a video statement on Facebook, Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley explained that formal charges had not yet been brought against the 36-year-old father. He added that the district attorney’s office would be responsible for determining whether or not to bring charges against Spencer.
In the video, Staley said, “This is a tragic situation, and my thoughts and prayers are with all involved.”
Staley told USA Today that Fosler had previously been arrested in July by a different law enforcement agency for stalking a child online and for sexual assault. Staley also indicated that the sheriff’s office is continuing to investigate what happened in the moments prior to last week’s fatal shooting.
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“When we get on scene and there’s a homicide, it means one person took the life of another,” Staley told the outlet. “It’s either justified or not justified. That’s what the fact finding, that’s what the investigation is going to find out.”
In a post on Facebook, Spencer’s wife, Heather, claimed that Fosler had a “no contact order” with their teenage daughter after allegedly stalking and raping the 14-year-old during the summer months. Spencer’s wife explained that neither she nor her husband were aware that Fosler had reestablished contact with their daughter.
“We absolutely called 911 during the entire event,” Spencer’s wife stated. “We had no idea this man was in contact with our child again. He was waiting 6-9 felonies for what he did, not 2. He was looking at the rest of his pathetic life in jail, and our daughter was the only witness.”
Spencer’s wife claimed that the local police department “afforded this predator privacy they did not give our family.” She noted that the police department had shared the family’s home address, adding that she was “deeply offended by the way this was handled by the county [sheriff’s] office.”
