POINSETT COUNTY, Ark. — The Poinsett County Sheriff’s Office is investigating whether a sex offender registered within the required time period of moving to the county.
The man previously lived in Clay County and may not have registered within the required five days of moving to his present home north of Harrisburg. That makes his new neighbors concerned.
“It makes me mad, very mad,” one woman said.
The woman who doesn’t want to be identified is upset her neighbor, Carl Franklin Roy, a level three sex offender, apparently didn’t register as soon as he moved into Poinsett County.
Roy, who once lived in Greenway, Arkansas, in Clay County has been charged with three counts of criminal sexual conduct and is required to register within five days of changing his address in Arkansas.
Records show he now lives in a house on Highway 163 north of Harrisburg.
The Poinsett County Sheriff’s Office started investigating Roy about three weeks ago after he came to the sheriff’s office to register.
While deputies were handing out these flyers to people in the neighborhood to let them know a sexual offender lived nearby, residents told them Roy had been living there for months.
“He bought the place in April, and he moved in late April,” a neighbor said. “He came down for a couple of weeks, and he would go back to wherever he was from for a couple of days, and then he’d come back for a few more weeks, and he started staying there in the summer and didn’t leave.”
The neighbor said Roy told her and other neighbors “wild” stories about where exactly he’s from.
“The other day, he told a neighbor he was from the circus, so we really don’t know all the stories, and that was red flags for me right off the bat, and I told my kids to stay away from him,” she said.
Roy’s picture has been posted on the Poinsett County Sheriff’s Facebook page with a warning for people to report any suspicious behavior.
Courtney Blackwell, a parent who lives nearby, wishes she and other people there had more warning.
“I heard he was living in the Harrisburg area, and my first though was my two beautiful kids at home,” Blackwell said. “I don’t feel right (with) him being here and not registering when he was supposed to.”
WREG knocked several times on the on the door of Roy’s address on Highway 163, but no one answered.
