Gary SimpsonROGERSVILLE, Tenn. – A man accused of abducting his 9-year-old niece bought a little girl’s bathing suit, a pack of underwear, two bottles of nail polish, two tubes of women’s colored lip gloss and other items, before taking the child out of her school in rural Tennessee and fleeing on May 4, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
Video surveillance released Tuesday by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation that is taken from another store on that same day in Rogersville shows Carlie Marie Trent with her uncle in a checkout line at a Save-A-Lot store. The uncle, Gary Simpson, can be seen purchasing large quantities of toilet paper, food and other items.
Simpson has no intention of bringing her home anytime soon, based on the way he was stocking up, Josh DeVine, a spokesman for the TBI said.
The agency has received about 600 tips that involve possible sightings of the girl in 11 different states, he said, but none of the sightings have been confirmed.
The Cooper County, Missouri, Sheriff’s office issued an Amber Alert for the girl on Tuesday after someone saw something Monday on the Lamine River in Clifton, according to the sheriff’s office Facebook page. Law enforcement swarmed the area with boats, aircraft and manpower, but the van spotted was not the same one that belongs to Simpson, un updated post on the page said.