Two felony counts of sexual abuse of children have been filed against 36-year-old Edmund Davis.
www.azfamily.com
HELENA, MT (3TV/CBS 5/AP) -- A Montana man connected to the disappearance of Alicia Navarro is facing felony charges after “child sexual abuse material” was found on a cellphone seized during a search warrant earlier this year, the Montana Attorney General’s Office announced on Tuesday.
The attorney general’s office announced the charges, two felony counts of sexual abuse of children, against 36-year-old Edmund Davis after his arrest on Monday in Chinook. He is being held in the Hill County Detention Center on a $1 million bond.
It was unknown if Davis is considered a suspect in the disappearance of Navarro. Authorities in Montana referred questions to law enforcement in Arizona, who said the investigation into the teenager’s disappearance is ongoing. Detectives do think he has been living with Navarro for quite some time. “It appears like she believes she wants to be with Mr. Davis and a relationship and future with him was possible,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said.
The announcement of the criminal charges by Knudsen ends months of silence by authorities about Navarro’s case. But key questions remain unanswered, including how and when the teenager ended up in far northern Montana — nearly 1,400 miles from her childhood home in Glendale— and whether Davis played a part in her disappearance.
It was Navarro’s case investigators believe opened up Pandora’s Box. “That certainly was the impetus for what cracked this open. That’s what got us the search warrant to get into the apartment, search warrants to get us into his devices,” Knudsen said.
In July, police executed a search warrant on Davis’s apartment in Havre, Montana, after detectives learned that Navarro was living in the small town about 35 miles south of the Canadian border. Authorities say Navarro answered the door before officers saw Davis throw the phone into a trash can and try to hide it.
Forensics investigators found dozens of images of suspected child *advertiser censored*. Glendale police obtained a copy of the images that were analyzed. The charges describe the images as involving prepubescent girls, infants and toddlers.
Navarro left a note behind when she disappeared from her home days before her 15th birthday, sparking a massive search that included the FBI. She was almost 19 when she walked into the Havre, Montana, police station in July and said she wanted to be removed from the missing persons list.
Over the years, Navarro’s mother, Jessica Nuñez, said that her daughter, who was diagnosed with autism, may have been lured away by someone she met online. When she disappeared in 2019, Navarro took only her laptop and cell phone.
Davis has not yet appeared in court on the charges and no hearings have been scheduled, court officials said. He made an initial appearance in Justice Court in Blaine County, said Kyler Nerison, a spokesman for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen.
