Searl Dunn: Convicted Child Killer Charged with Soliciting Minor on Facebook

A 65-year-old man from High Ridge, who'd twice been sent to prison for killing a toddler and fondling a young girl, was charged yesterday in St. Louis County with attempting to entice a minor online.

According to police, Searl L. Dunn used Facebook to connect with a south-county juvenile this month. Investigators first began tracking Dunn on Monday, after the child's family alerted authorities to inappropriate messages sent through the social media website. Dunn is described by police as a "trusted family friend" of the juvenile.

St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch described enticement of a child as "whenever someone over 21 years of age solicits by words, actions or communications via the Internet to anyone who is less than 15 years of age for the purpose of engaging in sexual contact."

As the Post-Dispatch reports, Dunn was paroled in 2005 serving 28 years of an 150-year prison sentence for beating to death a two-year-old child in 1977. The victim was the son of Dunn's live-in girlfriend. Dunn allegedly beat the toddler in an attempt to potty train him and cure him from sleeping in his mother's bed.

Months after his 2005 release for that crime, Dunn was charged with fondling an eleven-year-old girl and masturbating in front of her. He returned to prison until this year when he was again paroled.

Yesterday's charges come just three months after he left prison. Dunn, of the 4900 block of Diamond in High Ridge, is being held on a $250,000 bond.