The man accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Massillon on Monday was convicted in 1999 of raping his girlfriend and leaving her to die on the side of a Wyoming road, the Canton Repository reports.
According to the newspaper, Dennis L. Menefee Jr. spent several years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter related to the rape and death of 40-year-old Cindy Lee Dixon. Dixon was found dead of hypothermia on Jan. 3, 1999. Menefee, now 45, was 28 at the time.
Menefee, of Port Washington, Ohio, has also faced charges in Ohio, including robbery in 1994 and cultivation of marijuana in 2011.
Massillon Police reported he abducted a 9-year-old girl on Monday morning by posing as a police officer. He drove a short distance to a parking lot, where he allegedly sexually assaulted the young girl, threatened her and then released her.
The girl walked home and told her stepfather what happened. Police posted security camera pictures of Menefee’s alleged vehicle, and a manhunt resulted in his arrest on Wednesday.
Menefee faces charges of first-degree felony rape and kidnapping and first-degree misdemeanor assault and aggravated menacing.
In Ohio, raping a child under age 13 can result in life imprisonment.
