On the afternoon of December 11, 1997, a male suspect approached a 12-year-old boy near a construction site, which is now the Morningside Assisted Living Apartments near Smallwood Village Shopping Center, and began a conversation. He then led the victim to a wooded area near a bike path and sexually assaulted him. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office responded for the investigation.

The suspect was described as a white male, possibly in his mid-20s. He was between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighed about 165 pounds and had blue eyes and a mustache. He was wearing a knit ski cap, a white sweatshirt with a logo on the front, light-colored blue jeans and tennis shoes.