MEMPHIS, Tenn. — WREG has uncovered new information about a man accused of trying to kidnap a 10-year-old girl from her school, not once but twice.
Her mother told WREG this wasn’t the first time he went after her family.
“Why won’t he stop?” said the mother, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.
She said she asked that question too many times since 2013 when her then 9-year-old daughter came home from afterschool care talking about one of the men, Tavius Woods, who worked there.
“She said he reached between his legs, and told her let’s have sex. She told him no,” said the mother.
The rest of it is too graphic for television.
“Yanked them out and changed their schools,” said the mother.
Not long after, she said Woods posed as her daughter’s father and tried to pick her up from school.
WREG told you when police finally arrested Woods in 2014. He was charged with solicitation of a minor and aggravated sexual battery.
“Police, nobody contacted us to let us know what was going on. Next thing we knew they was dropping the trial. They dropped it,” said the mother.
All because, she said, the judge ruled Woods as too incompetent to stand trial.
“I don’t believe it, because I’m still not understanding. You can make up all these fake names and find my kids school. I wouldn’t doubt if he could find my kid’s school,” said the mother. “They need to do something to him.”
We tried to find more details, but there’s no trace of the case within the court system, meaning it’s been expunged.
“What expungement means is the case was completely removed from your record, it never happened,” said attorney Aaron Neglia.
He said only law enforcement would be able to find the case.
“They can’t bring it up in court. They can’t bring it up in a trial. They can’t use it to enhance any punishment,” he said.
The mother said Woods continued to try to reach out to the family on Facbeook and even made up several names to contact her.
She said she kept calling police and kept waiting for an arrest.
As for his intentions, she said, “I have no idea. I’m not trying to find out.”
It wasn’t until last month when she said Woods tried it again. He posed as a family member and tried to take her other daughter out of Germanshire Elementary two times.
Police finally arrested him for attempted kidnapping.
She said both her kids are back in counseling.
“It’s not fair my kids can’t live their life. Can’t have a childhood like they need to,” she said. “Nobody can’t understand your kids waking up in the middle of the night screaming. Nightmares. You’re trying to calm them down trying to get them back to sleep. My daughter walking around looking behind her back.”
WREG reached out to the district attorney’s office, the state and MPD for a comment.
We got a statement from the DA’s staff: “Under the law, we are not permitted to discuss any prior case that may or may not have been filed against this defendant in 2014. We can say that the defendant is now in custody on a $75,000 bond and is charged with attempted especially aggravated kidnapping, which is a B felony punishable by 8 to 30 years in prison.
“The case is being handled by our Special Victims Unit which prosecutes cases of child sexual abuse and severe physical abuse of child victims; rape and aggravated rape of adult victims, and abuse of elderly and vulnerable adults. SVU reviews child-victim cases with Shelby County’s multi-agency Child Protection Investigative Team.”
