I don't get why so many people are having a hard time understanding the charge. It's not an "intent to defile" charge it's "
abduction with intent to defile." Abduction is a lesser included charge - a class 5 felony. The intent to defile motivation raises it to a class 2 felony. It's essentially an abduction that is motivated by a sexual purpose, i.e., intent to molest.
Here is an example of a set of facts that resulted in an abduction with intent to defile conviction upheld on appeal:
Here's another description of a conviction:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/28/AR2009012803534.html
The suspect was the last person to be seen with HG. According to the Coy Barefoot article, witnesses reportedly have her being very drunk, even unable to stand up. Witnesses also say the suspect was drinking, very inappropriately grabby with women all night, and had his hands on HG. HG is missing and there is no reason to believe that she simply vanished on her own. They also have the Liberty accusation. The warrant came back after some forensics - we don't know what they are yet. Presumably there is something else. So they get over the probable cause hurdle. We don't know what they have or don't have. Might they only have enough for probable cause and not enough for a conviction? Yeah, we don't know the evidence they've got.