Childress faces charges in Texas, Missouri

A 32-year-old woman is facing charges here and in Texas after police say she lured a 16-year-old runaway to Texas where they had sex.

Sgt. Randy Tate of the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department said the family reported that the boy had run off. The family believed he ran off with a woman but they didn’t know who she was and the only description of her vehicle was that it was possibly a white van.

During the investigation, deputies were able to get the woman’s phone number. From that, they got her address and found out her name was Katrina L. Childress. According to Case.net, her last known address is in Fredericktown and she has no prior convictions in Missouri.

“They got her license number and entered it into the system and got a hit that it had been ran in Texas (near Dallas),” Tate said.

Not long after that, Childress and the boy were found in Bedford, Texas. 

He said Texas police interviewed her and she admitted to having a sexual relationship with the boy. He said she admitted that she had started a cell phone relationship with the boy and then met with him.

He said the boy was placed in the juvenile detention center in Texas until they could put him on a plane.

Tate said an endangering the welfare of a child charge was filed against Childress here. He said the way the law is written, they couldn’t charge her with kidnapping because he was more than 14 years old and he went willingly.

According to KMOV, Childress has been charged in Texas with sexual assault and unlawful restraint. After the arrest Saturday, her own two minor children were placed in the care of Child Protective Services.

Tate said when Texas is done with her, she will be brought to St. Francois County to face the charge here.

Tate said they dealt with three or four runaway juveniles this weekend. He added that one of the other juveniles had run off to another state before.