(Mankato, MN) – Police used dogs and drones to locate a Pemberton man stand accused of raping a teen girl known to him.

Billy Joe Walters, 35, was charged Thursday in Blue Earth County Court with felony counts of first and third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

According to the criminal complaint, a 13-year-old girl told police October 23rd that Walters had kissed her on several occasions, but things escalated at the beginning of the school year when Walters told her he was horny and asked her if she wanted to do “it.”  Walters raped the girl at his home in Pemberton, according to the complaint.

Walters said he was sorry when the victim’s mother confronted him about the rape, according to court documents.  The girl’s mother told police she learned of the incident by reading her daughter’s diary.

At 11:12 p.m. the day the report was made, Walters allegedly fled into a cornfield when a Blue Earth County Sheriff’s deputy pulled over the vehicle he was riding in.  The driver told the officer that he had picked up Walters in Pemberton to give him a ride to Mankato, and had no idea he would flee.

Walters was discovered in the cornfield at approximately 1:09 a.m., according to the complaint.  Police used a drone and a canine to locate Walters, who remains in custody at the Blue Earth County Jail.

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