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Roachdale man arrested in child pornography investigation

Tuesday, October 6, 2020
By JARED JERNAGAN, Editor
Douglas Edwards

ROACHDALE -- A 59-year-old man was arrested Monday evening amidst a child pornography investigation.

While police are still uncovering details in the case, Douglas Edwards of Roachdale has been preliminarily charged with one count of possession of child pornography. He was booked into the Putnam County Jail at 8:56 p.m. Monday.

Roachdale Town Marshal Adrian Lepine initially received information from the Crawfordsville Police Department, which had recovered a hard drive with photographs believed to be child pornography.

Lepine was able to identify the owner of the hard drive as Edwards, who resides in Roachdale.

With a search warrant, Indiana State Police investigators were able to extract the evidence from the hard drive, which led to another search warrant, this one for Edwards’ Washington Street residence.

Two Putnam County Sheriff’s Office detectives, Capt. Doug Nally and Matthew Biggs, along with Marshal Lepine and officers Roger Tonnah, Owen Richardson and Jay Thompson of the Roachdale Police Department, served the warrant Monday evening.

In doing so, the officers seized a number of electronic devices, including desktop and laptop computers, tablets, media cards and flash drives.

Police will now apply for another search warrant to look for any further evidence.

While the investigation is ongoing, police believe there is enough evidence for at least one formal charge against Edwards.

“We are hopeful that we will be able to get a charge of possession of child pornography through the Prosecutor’s Office,” Nally said.

The detective was also pleased with how well the two local departments worked together in executing the warrant.

“The great thing was how we were able to work with Roachdale,” Nally said. “We all worked well together and it was a smooth operation.”

The Banner Graphic will follow this case when and if more information becomes available.

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  • Great job! Glad to see this freak behind bars.

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Wed, Oct 7, 2020, at 9:02 AM
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    Queen53 - I just realized... you are indeed the Queen.

    The Red Queen.

    "Off with their head!"

    "Now, what were the charges?"

    Or perhaps this guy is a personal acquaintance of yours and you have personal insight into his guilt... b/c simply going off of the information in the article there is a whole bunch of information missing that would further shed light on his guilt or innocence and I am not one who likes the idea of throwing someone in jail b/c law enforcement "believes" and "hopes".

    But unlike you, I am kind of a fan of due process.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Wed, Oct 7, 2020, at 10:19 AM
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    Well said dread

    -- Posted by Irontail on Wed, Oct 7, 2020, at 10:30 AM

  • Good point, DPR. We should probably let due process take its course before declaring him guilty.

    -- Posted by Prince of Stardust Hills on Wed, Oct 7, 2020, at 1:44 PM

  • Due process, indeed. Fully investigate, prosecute, and once guilt is determined beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of his peers, I’ll be all for removing his eyes, fingers, and a few other parts.

    -- Posted by techphcy on Thu, Oct 8, 2020, at 8:05 AM
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    Techphcy - Will you be the one to carry out the sentence? Could you torture another human being for the sake of assuaging your own sense of rage?

    If found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt I have no problems with a substantial prison term depending on the severity of his crimes.

    I have no use for those who prey on others.

    And those who prey on the most vulnerable - children, the elderly, and the impaired - are especially likely to face the death penalty if warranted in my idea of a well-ordered society.

    However, I must draw a line at torture.

    And any death sentence carried out should be done so by a member of the jury.

    If a man of civil society feels confident enough to condemn another's life for the sake of that society, that man should be confident enough in his belief to perform the execution.

    Too many times people call for blood b/c its easy to do so when it is not themselves that must exact it.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Thu, Oct 8, 2020, at 10:15 AM

  • I don’t suggest that punishment in seriousness. Do I think he deserves it? Probably. Do I think we should actually do that? No. I’m anti-death penalty and wouldn’t support permanently injuring a convict. Somewhere between 4-15% of all convicted inmates are innocent, and many more were not properly proven by evidence. Silly games like hair comparison and blood type matching, eyewitness testimony, bad blood spatter “science”, and other expert testimony has sent thousands of innocent people to prison and death row. We should not be killing anyone who might be innocent.

    -- Posted by techphcy on Thu, Oct 8, 2020, at 11:02 AM
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    Techphcy - :)

    You make very valid points.

    I support the death penalty, but the bar must be set very high.

    And I agree that too many people get caught up in the "science" of law enforcement with little/no pushback.

    Unfortunately I think a lot of people watch CSI, Criminal Minds, and similar shows and think that it is an accurate reflection of reality.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Thu, Oct 8, 2020, at 11:24 AM
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