Did Joshua Thurber have Past Allegations (Lewd & Lascivious behavior) Prior to Death of Jodi Sanderholm?
Its being reported that the man, Joshua Thurber, accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering Jodi Sanderholm had past allegations against him. Allegations that seemed to have gone by the wayside as Thurber was never charged. It does appear that Thurber did have run-ins with the law. When will we ever learn that a criminal element escalates their crimes until all too often it becomes murder.
An Ark City woman claims Joshua Thurber tried to abduct her niece. Loretta Caballero says last April her 11-year-old niece was held by Thurber, against her will.
According to police reports, the young girl was asked by a friend of her mom to help the friend translate a conversation with Thurber. The friend didn’t speak English very well, so the 11-year-old girl tried to help.
The girl says the woman and Thurber started fighting, and Thurber refused to take them home. Instead, he kept them in his car and drove farther away from town. The girl also says Thurber was exposing himself to both of them.
In the end, both girls jumped from the moving car, ran to a nearby home and called police.
Police showed the girl a photo lineup and she immediately picked out Thurber’s picture. (KAKE)
It always seems the case that when predators get away with lesser crimes, they are destined to do it again and escalate the violence until they get caught. We are still trying to understand how the “lewd and lascivious” behavior was allowed to go without incident.
The police reports called the case criminal restraint, endangering a child and lewd and lascivious behavior. But days and weeks went by without an arrest. To this day Thurber has never been charged with these crimes.
Cowley County Attorney Chris Smith says the case was eventually turned over to his office but there wasn’t enough evidence to file charges. It would be Mariela’s word against Thurber’s and Mariela admitted she got in his car willingly.
Please don’t use my name because I live in Arksnsas City and the judicial system here stinks. A few years ago we had several deaths that were odd to say the least. One man was shot in the head but they more or less dropped it because he wasn’t from here. One man went into a river, they called that suicide. One man was found back off the road behind a feedlot quite a ways from his vehicle which had been burnt. Since it was in the summer and he wasn’t found for a couple of days they reported that they couldn’t tell if he had been burnt because he was decomposed. Come on! Clothes don’t decompose that fast. Wouldn’t they have been burnt. We don’t have murders here but we have some really strange accidents and suicides.
Comment by LW | March 8, 2007