VICTORIA ELIZABETH ANDERSON - 16 yo - Landon (E of Summerville) SC

The suspect in an AMBER Alert issued
Thursday morning for a missing 16-year-old girl has charged with
criminal sexual conduct with a minor.
Authorities found the missing teen and arrested the suspect roughly an hour after a statewide AMBER Alert was issued Thursday.
SLED issued the alert at 10:20 a.m. for
16-year-old Victoria Elizabeth Anderson of Ladson.

Anderson was believed
to have been abducted by 34-year-old Arthur Jimmy Scott.



Officials canceled the alert around 11:20
a.m. after finding Anderson and Scott. During the investigation,
investigators received word that a text message had been received from
the missing girl by the mother of one of her friends. That message
indicated that the 16-year-old was being held against her will and
possibly in harm's way.
That's when SLED activated the AMBER Alert system.
The missing girl was located a short time
later at Givhan's State Park in Dorchester County. The suspect was
taken into custody at a traffic stop in the vicinity of the state park.
Scott was charged with criminal sexual
conduct with a minor. He is currently being held in the Dorchester
County Jail and will be in bond court Friday morning.

A Ladson man kidnapped and sexually assaulted his children's
16-year-old babysitter before the girl escaped his grasp several hours
later and flagged down a park ranger at Givhans Ferry State Park, authorities said today.


Arthur Jimmy Scott

Berkeley and Dorchester County sheriff's deputies were on the scene
within minutes, bringing an end to a statewide Amber Alert that began
when the girl sent a text to a friend's mom saying she was being held against her will.

Deputies say they arrested Arthur Jimmy Scott, 34, during a traffic
stop near Ridgeville after they saw him fleeing the park in his grey
Chevrolet pickup. He was uncooperative, Berkeley County sheriff's Capt. Rick Ollic said.

Deputies are still swearing out warrants for Scott on kidnapping
charges. Dorchester County sheriff's Maj. John Garrison said they've
sworn out a warrant charging Scott with criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Scott is expected to appear at a bond hearing this morning.

Ollic said the girl was reported missing from the Sangaree area near Summerville about 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Berkeley County sheriff's deputies requested the State Law
Enforcement Division issue an Amber Alert this morning after the girl
sent a text to her friend's mom saying that she couldn't get away from
the suspect and feared for her safety, Ollic said.

Right off, Arthur Jimmy Scott said he didn't commit the serious crime
with which he is charged, but the magistrate told him it wasn't time to
determine his guilt or innocence.

Scott, a married father of two from Summerville who turned 34 on
Tuesday, will be tried March 4 for allegedly abducting, drugging and
sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl who had baby-sat his children.

On Friday morning, Scott appeared on the small video monitor in
Magistrate Arthur Bryngelson's courtroom, conferenced in from the jail
in St. George, to learn what it would cost him to get out of jail
pending trial. The answer: $500,000 cash or surety bond.

The hearing was brief, and the single charge very serious -- first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Scott, who appeared nervous and upset, asked what sort of sentence
such a charge might result in, and was told that's a question he should
ask a lawyer. After the hearing, Bryngelson said Scott could be looking
at 20 to 30 years if convicted.

Berkeley County sheriff's deputies also have sworn out a warrant
charging Scott with kidnapping, but he has yet to appear at a bond
hearing for that charge.

The affidavit on the criminal sexual conduct charge said that "at
some point after the juvenile victim was kidnapped, the defendant forced
her to consume alcoholic beverages and illegal drugs/narcotics in order
to incapacitate her."

The girl's mother attended the hearing and spoke briefly.

"I have many things I can think of to say to you," she told Scott
with a calm fury, through the video hookup. "The horrible and heinous
things that you did to a life that is beautiful, is so horrible."

Scott was ordered to have no contact with the victim or her family,
as a bond condition. His alleged victim did not attend the hearing.

The girl had been the subject of an Amber Alert issued early
Thursday, after she sent a text message to a friend's mother that,
according to police, said that she couldn't get away from the suspect
and feared for her safety. She had been missing since 11 p.m. Wednesday.

About an hour after the alert was issued, the girl flagged down a
park ranger at Givhans Ferry State Park. Police said she had gotten away
from Scott, and told a ranger that Scott had been holding her against
her will all night.

Scott was arrested a short time later during a traffic stop near
Ridgeville after he was seen leaving the park in his gray Chevrolet
pickup truck, authorities said.