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Former Purdue football player tracked by sheriff’s
bloodhound
By Jon Seidel /
Post-Tribune staff writer
Dec. 3, 2005
As soon as the dog jumped into his
lap and began licking his face, he knew it was over.
“I have to do something now,” said
Kyle Darnell Williams, a 19-year-old former Purdue University
football player.
In his lap was Samantha, a Porter
County Sheriff’s Department bloodhound who allegedly helped solve
two attempted sexual assaults police said were committed by Williams
on Purdue’s campus.
“They were very complimentary,”
Porter County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Emmons said.
Emmons also said Samantha, who is
handled by Porter County Sheriff’s Sgt. Charles Douthett, is one of
very few bloodhounds in the area, which is how the two ended up
helping Purdue police.
“They called us and asked for his
help,” Emmons said.
In West Lafayette, according to
police, Purdue police arrested Williams, who is from Bolingbrook,
Ill., minutes after a second sexual assault against a female student
on campus.
Police said Williams approached an
18-year-old woman at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, severely beat her about the
face and attempted to remove her clothing. He was scared off by
another student, according to reports.
Williams approached the second
victim at 10:30 p.m. that night, assaulting her the way he did to
the first victim, police said. He was scared away again by a
bicyclist.
A Purdue police officer said he
found Williams six blocks away wearing blood-stained clothing.
At first, Williams told police he
had not attacked the women, police said. Then Samantha was brought
to the station where Williams was being held.
Police rubbed a scent pad against a
victim’s jeans, which police said had been handled by the attacker.
After smelling the scent pad, police
said, Samantha walked through the police station, past numerous
other people, and jumped in Williams’ lap and licked his face.
“A short time after that,” Emmons
said, “the guy made the comment.”
He also confessed to the crimes,
according to reports.
Samantha also was used to lead
police from the scene of the first attack back to Williams’
apartment, police said, and then from the apartment to the area of
the second attack.
“That was a good part of the
probable cause,” Emmons said.
Williams was charged with attempted
felony rape with serious bodily injury, attempted felony rape,
aggravated battery and battery.
Emmons said Samantha’s handler used
to have another bloodhound who worked for the sheriff’s department.
She died recently, though.
Samantha, meanwhile, has been with
the department “quite a while,” Emmons said.
Samantha and Sgt. Charles Douthett |
