Kenneth Moore

ELKHART COUNTY — Kenneth J. Moore, 51, is being held in the Elkhart County Correctional Facility on $500,000 bond after being arrested on two counts of child molesting, one charge a level 1 felony and the second charge a level 4 felony.

A note on the court documents states Moore will be charged as a repeat sex offender enhancement as he was convicted of child molesting in 2007 and is being investigated for another child molesting case in Kosciusko County.

He will appear in Elkhart Superior Court 3 at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 31.

He was arrested Wednesday, Jan. 16, by Goshen Police. When Moore was booked an address of 2330 Lake Sharon 3-B, Warsaw, was given as an address. Court documents show his address as 8368 E. Lake View Drive, Syracuse.

Court documents state Goshen Police received a report of abuse or neglect regarding a 12-year-old female Jan. 7. Documents state the mother of the female found a message on Instagram where her daughter stated she had been raped and identified her assailant.

After finding the messages, the mother spoke with her daughter, who did disclose the individual, identified as Moore, had touched her inappropriately on two different occasions, with one time causing pain.

A forensic interview was conducted at Child and Parent Services, Elkhart and during that interview disclosed what had occurred.

The victim told authorities it occurred in 2014 when Moore had taken her home from bowling and on the way home, she fell asleep. She stated when she arrived home her pants were undone and her seatbelt was off and she was in pain. The second incident is alleged to have occurred around Christmas 2017, while at a residence. At that time Moore inappropriately touched her while no one else was in the room.

The victim was taken to St. Joe Medical Center for a sexual assault nurse examiner exam, which determined she had been assaulted.

Moore came to Goshen Police Department Jan. 17, where he was advised of the accusation. He was read his rights and agreed to answer questions by police. He admitted he was accused of looking at the female’s butt at one point and he was alone with the victim one time when he had taken her home from bowling.

Documents state Moore denied the allegations at first, and then stated he did touch her inappropriately while taking her home from bowling. He stated he knew it was wrong and told himself he shouldn’t be doing it, but the opportunity was there. He also stated he did this out of loneliness because he was just out of prison and could not find female companionship.

While he denied the second incident, he stated he could have been alone with the victim at that time.