The United States Marshal Service is now offering a $5000 reward for information leading to the arrest of convicted Habersham County child molester Benjamin Shook.
Shook is believed to be traveling with 14-year-old Hayleigh Wilson who disappeared from her home in Tennessee one week ago.
The search for Shook and Wilson is currently focused in the wilderness areas in Smyth, Grayson and Wythe counties in southwest Virginia.
As Now Habersham reported first on Thursday, Shook was convicted of Child Molestation in Habersham County in 2004 and was released in 2014. There is an active warrant for his arrest here after he failed to register as a sex offender and fled to Tennessee.
He was last seen, with Wilson, on Wednesday on foot in the Sugar Grove community in Smyth County. According to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) agents, “They were seen twice on Wednesday, June 24 in the area of Flat Ridge Road in Sugar Grove.”
The vehicle they were originally driving was recovered in nearby Grayson County Virginia on Thursday. Surveillance footage from a convenience store places them in the Sugar Grove area as well.
Over the weekend, state and federal authorities assisted local police K-9 units and sheriff’s deputies as they searched abandoned barns, campsites, cabins and other structures that might provide shelter for the fugitives.
Please see the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s updated the Amber Alert for Hayleigh Wilson. It includes new photos that better reflect how she and Shook look in the most recent surveillance images.
If you have any information on the whereabouts of Hayleigh Wilson or Benjamin Shook, you are urged to call the Surgoinsville, Tennessee Police Department at 423-272-7121 or TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND.
