Man wanted for allegedly molesting two young children

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - In December of 2022, police got a call of a reported child molestation of a young child. Months later, police found a similar incident happened with another child in the family, which led to a second arrest warrant.

"What's really unfortunate about child abuse is only one in ten kids will disclose that abuse to an adult that they trust," said Shleby Lynch, the Director of Education at the CARE Center.

According to the arrest warrant, 41-year-old Dustin Wayne Ferrell was babysitting an underage family member on December 17th, 2022 and molested the child.

The warrant showed that the child talked with their mother and said it's been happening for years.

Ferrell was arrested for that incident, but it didn't end there.

In January, another underage family member was interviewed for a similar situation, but was too scared to talk to detectives, until the CARE center stepped in.

"When kids are in an active child abuse investigation, they will come to the care center. And how much they know about that interview is kind of up to the detective, up to the DHS worker, maybe even up to the caregiver on what they know before they step through our doors," said Lynch.

The center said a lot of kids will go through their ROAR program which teaches kids below the age of eight, how to protect themselves from abuse.

"We do encourage kids, especially those that are participating in our program, that if something is happening to you, we encourage them to talk to a safe adult that they can trust. So maybe this is maybe a caregiver, maybe it's a teacher or their school counselor. Maybe they have a family friend or their best friend's mom or dad," said Lynch.

Lynch said every adult in Oklahoma is mandated to legally report if they know something or are suspicious of abuse going on.

Ferrell is wanted for lewd acts with a child under 14 and rape. He was previously released on bond following his initial arrest.