Man arrested in child sex abuse case here

A New Year’s Eve joint operation between the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s State Technical Assistance Team (STAT) led to the arrest of a man who is alleged to have sexually abused a young teenage girl in Ozark County from the time she was 13 to 15. 

Darron Bolton, 43, of Sycamore, has been charged in Ozark County court with the unclassified felony of statutory sodomy, having deviate sexual intercourse with a person younger than 14. 

He is being held in the Ozark County Jail without bond and was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. Details of that hearing were not available at press time. 

According to the probable cause statement filed in the case by Ozark County Deputy Josh Sherman, on Dec. 21, 2025, a witness reported that Bolton had engaged in ongoing sexual abuse of a juvenile victim over the last several years beginning when the girl was approximately 13 years old and continuing until she was 15 or 16. 

The witness reportedly told the officers that Barton had personally told her about the abuse, saying that he’d been having an intimate and physical relationship with the young teen. 

The woman told officers she wanted charges to be filed against Bolton, and the sheriff’s department and Division of Family Services (DFS) would have her full cooperation during the investigation, including involvement of her children. 

On Dec. 30, 2025, a Child Advocacy Center forensic interview was conducted in Springfield with the juvenile victim. During the interview, the girl reportedly disclosed that she and Bolton had engaged in sexual acts from the time she was 13 until she was approximately 15. She said most of the acts took place in the Bolton family vehicle or at his residence in Sycamore, north of Gainesville in the Hodgson Mill area.

The probable cause statement says that during the forensic interview, the girl disclosed a “pregnancy scare” that occurred when she was just 14 years old. She also told interviewers that during the summer of 2024, she was frequently under the influence of marijuana and alcohol, provided by Bolton, who told her it would help with any pain involved. 

The report says that two other juvenile witnesses were interviewed by CAC and corroborated details in regard to the girl’s statement that the family vehicle was a primary location for the abuse.