Update 9/18/2013- News Channel 3 has confirmed accused child molester James Marchand took his life.
We’re told Marchand committed suicide Wednesday and that he had at least one previously failed attempt.
(Hernando, MS) Accused child molester James Marchand is back on the streets after paying a $200,000 bond.
He’s accused of molesting three children, and that number could soon go up.
Since News Channel 3 broke the story Friday night, and since, authorities say three more children have come forward.
One of them: a 13-year old-girl, a friend of Marchand’s daughter at Lake Cormorant Middle School, who says the abuse has been on going on for years.
“My daughter went to school with his daughter since third grade,” said her father.
We talked to the girl’s father by phone Tuesday and we agreed to keep his family anonymous. He says he tried to report Marchand this summer when his daughter first came forward about the abuse.
“We came forward at the end of June. We reported it to DHS. DHS just lost our case, cancelled our case out.”
He says when they heard deputies arrested Marchand for molestation Friday, they came forward again,
Marchand had been accused of molesting a child before in 2006, which ended in a hung jury.
This summer, when investigators called Marchand about the more recent allegations, instead of ending up at the sheriff’s office, Marchand ended up at the MED.
“When law-enforcement wanted to interview him, he is in a massive head-on collision,” said DeSoto County Prosecutor Steven Jubera.
“He wants to save his family from embarrassment,” said the anonymous father. “I think he was taking the coward way out. The least he could do is admit what he did and apologize to the victims and his own family.”
Marchand spent weeks in the MED and one day in jail, and is now out waiting for his next court date, October 24.
