Sex Offender Snips Off Tracking Anklet

Chatham County investigators are asking for your help.   

They're searching for a registered sex offender who has disappeared.  

Stephen Bell is classified as a sexually dangerous predator.    

The 40-year old was convicted of molesting a child in 2004.

He was recently fitted with a tracking ankle bracelet.

But that device was cut off and found on Tybee Island!

3 On Your Side Crime and Safety Reporter Kaitlyn Pratt has more.

Jason Henry had no idea a regular customer - would become a wanted man.

The Chu's Market employee says Stephen Bell would stop in for coffee and conversation.

"He was living right across the street.  He would come in 2,3 times a day but he didn't strike me as somebody I should be on the lookout for," Henry says. 

 

Sheriff's department investigators say you should be on the lookout.

Bell's a Class 3 offender -- or high risk:

"He is dangerous and the classification level would indicate that. We believe there's more than one prosecution for child molestation in this state as well as another state," says Chatham County Sheriff's Investigator Warren Blanton.

One of Henry's coworkers found a tracking anklet Bell was supposed to wear outside the Tybee Island store.

"About yay big... It had a clean cut.  She said he came in here and got something and walked right back out the store.  When she walked out she saw the  bracelet sitting off to the side," recalls Henry.

"The store notified the probation office that they had found the bracelet. There's a number on the back of these bracelets," Blanton adds.

Police say Bell was registered as a Tybee resident.  He gave them his latest address on Second Avenue March 28th. 

"We've been to that location this morning - the people there say he has not been there in over a week," says Blanton.

But Henry says the sex offender stopped by the store Monday evening - so he may still be in the area.

"It'll feel a lot better once we know he's caught and I'm sure a lot of parents will feel a lot better too," Henry says.

Bell faces charges for violating his probation and registered sex offender rules.

He's 5 feet six inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes.

We're told he has a Jolly Roger tattoo on his left shoulder.

Anyone with information on where he could be should call the Chatham County Sheriff's Office Sex Offender Registry and Tracking Unit at 912 -652-7697.