Wichita boy slipped out of sex offender’s grasp because he ‘was sweaty’: affidavit
A 10-year-old boy nearly snatched off a Wichita street by a sex offender last month told police he was able to slip out of his would-be abductor’s grasp because he was sweaty.
According to an arrest affidavit released last month, the boy told Wichita officers that he was walking to the QuikTrip convenience store on Kellogg and Broadway on July 19 to get a drink when an older man — later identified as Webb W. Ketcherside, 62 — approached him and asked if he’d “ever had sex before.”
When the boy said no, “because he was a kid,” Ketcherside grabbed the child’s left wrist and “asked if he could have sex with (him),” the affidavit says.
The boy later told police he “was able to pull away” because he “was sweaty.” The boy told officers the man’s grip hurt his wrist. The abduction attempt happened in the 800 block of South Wichita around 4:50 p.m.
After he escaped, the boy darted to the nearby QuikTrip for help, stopping only for a break in heavy traffic at the intersection.
A QuikTrip security officer called 911 after someone saw the distressed boy, who said he was too scared to walk home.
As a police officer was driving him home, the boy identified Ketcherside as the man who solicited him.
The affidavit says when police tried to interview Ketcherside, “he admitted to consuming alcoholic beverages and had difficulty communicating.” A breath alcohol test registered his intoxication level at .164, twice the legal limit to drive in Kansas.
Ketcherside, who was arrested after the boy’s report, is charged with aggravated indecent solicitation of a child and attempted kidnapping. He is next due in court on Oct. 22 and remains in the Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bond.
Ketcherside has a prior indecent solicitation of a child conviction from Smith County in 1998, records show.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misstated one of Webb Ketcherside’s criminal charges.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 11:36 AM.
