Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Sam Penrod reportingDet. Reed Van Wagoner, Provo Police Dept.: "They pointed out different individuals and gave us leads which eventually led to the arrest"
A man suspected of groping two teenage girls is in jail, and police credit the community in helping to make the arrest.
Provo detectives have arrested a man on charges of child -kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault of a child.
The arrest stems from two incidents over the past two weeks involving junior high age girls as they walked home from school.
Central Utah Correspondent Sam Penrod is live in Utah County with more.
The suspect was arrested thanks in part to some composite sketches---that the 13- year old victims helped police to create, after they reported a man wearing a sweatshirt with a hood came from behind them and assaulted them.
Students and parents who live near Farrer Middle school have less to worry about today, after learning a suspect in two similar sexual assaults involving 13- year old girls has been arrested.
In both cases the girls were attacked as they walked home from school.
Det. Reed Van Wagoner, Provo Police Dept: He grabs her between the legs and was holding her."
After each assault, police were able to create these separate composite sketches.
The day after the second assault, a Provo officer patrolling the same area, noticed a man's similarity to the sketches.
Det. Reed Van Wagoner, Provo Police Dept: "One of our school resource officers was patrolling the area and he observed an individual walk down the street that fit the description of the composite drawing."
The officer questioned this man, 27- year old Michael David Henslington of Provo.
Police also got numerous calls from neighbors who pointed out similarities in the sketch to Henslington, who lives in the same neighborhood.
From that and other evidence, police arrested Henslington on charges of child kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault.
Det. Reed Van Wagoner, Provo Police Dept: "We couldn't find any history on him of sexual assaults, no related sexual offenses at all, no lewdness nothing to relate to this type of crime."
Henslington however has eight prior arrest records in Utah County, mostly for burglary and drug charges.
Police credit the citizens who called in with information on the composite sketch in helping to make the arrest.
Det. Reed Van Wagoner, Provo Police Dept: "We as police officers cannot solve all the crimes in a community, we need the community to step forward and say this is going on and in this case that's exactly what they did."
The suspect is being held in the Utah County jail.
Bail has been set at 50-thousand dollars.
