Fast-food worker arrested in Wichita student abductions charged with kidnapping, rape
A fast-food worker accused of abducting three Wichita schoolchildren who were walking to and from their schools last week has been charged with 13 crimes, including kidnapping and rape.
Wichita police arrested 21-year-old Manasseh Lemuel Ward of Wichita after they say he snatched a 13-year-old girl who was walking home from Curtis Middle School, 1031 S. Edgemoor, on Jan. 4 and then kidnapped a 7-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl walking to Clark Elementary School, 650 S. Apache Dr., the next morning. Police say he sexually assaulted both girls.
The boy, who was released before the 10-year-old girl on Jan. 5, told someone at his school what happened and later helped police confirm that a blue car parked at an east-side KFC, near Harry and Woodlawn, was the same one driven by his kidnapper, police said last week. Police have said Ward went to work at the restaurant after the kidnappings; officers arrested him after a short chase.
Ward — whose first name is spelled Manasse’h in court records — made a first appearance in Sedgwick County District Court on Tuesday afternoon, where a judge notified him of the criminal charges prosecutors had filed: one count each of kidnapping and aggravated kidnapping, four counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, three counts of aggravated criminal sodomy with a child, two counts of child rape, one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of interference with law enforcement, court records show.
The judge set Ward’s bond at $600,000, appointed a public defender to represent him and ordered Ward to return to court for his next hearing on Jan. 26, court records show. The local public defender’s office didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Ward is also being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on $1 million bond for an alleged probation violation in a 2021 domestic abuse case, according to an online log of jail inmates.
This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 5:30 PM.
