Four people have been arrested after their chilling plan to kidnap and murder a child was uncovered.
David Bailey, 37, Matthew Toole, 32, Talia Furman, 32, and Jayme LaPoint, 19, were all arrested by Michigan State Police and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and conspiracy to commit criminal sexual conduct. Each of the charges is punishable by up to life in prison if the defendants are convicted.
In a new report, police released texts and witness interviews that describe their horrific plan to torture, sexually assault and then burn a child alive in the summer of 2018. Thankfully, the foursome did not get to enact their fantasy before being apprehended by police. One witness said that she was sitting at a table with the group when they were allegedly plotting to abduct a girl from a county fair. She told police:
“Because Jayme LaPoint could pass for a teenager (she was 18 at the time) she would be the decoy. Jayme would ask a child to use their phone and when they gave it to her she would run away with it.”
They then planned to kidnap the child, bring her to a cabin and torture her, police said.
“After the torture, their hope is she would still be alive,” authorities said. “They would then start a fire and put the child in a burning barrel and put the child in it alive to be burned.”
After committing the crime, they intended on smashing up the child's bones and teeth and fleeing to start new lives in the area.
According to MLive, police conducted jailhouse interviews in which an inmate gave information about two of the suspects. The inmate, whose name has been redacted from the files, said that he met up with Matthew Toole and Toole's girlfriend, Talia Furman. He went on to say that Toole showed him a video on his phone of a young girl being sexually assaulted, and told the inmate that he planned on having sex with the girl when she turned nine. This interview led to police seizing Toole's phone and laptop. When analyzed, police found images of Toole and Furman committing sexual acts with at least two different children.
Police also discovered texts between the four accused that detailed their plans to abduct a child:
TO: “We wanna. What you thinking bout doing? Think we would have any luck hunting?”
FROM: “Possibly, but idk this late. But we could at least hang out if we don’t find anybody.”
TO: “I’m almost getting to the point of ski mask and gunpoint”
FROM: “I’m getting there too. Lol.”
At one point in their conversation they discussed how desperate they were becoming, even considering kidnapping a child from a store:
TO: “Anything at this point. Lol. I seriously contemplated pistol whipping a woman and snatching her daughter at the store last night”
According to court reports, the four defendants are scheduled for a jury trial at 8:30 a.m. March 19 to March 21, before Judge P. William O’Grady.
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