Two McDowell men have been indicted by a grand jury after being accused of separate child sex crimes.

50-year-old John Wesley Conner of Nebo faces five counts of indecent liberties with a child, two counts of statutory sex offense with a child, and one count each of statutory rape of a child, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

In January, Conner’s family had reported him missing, claiming he was threatening to harm himself.

The McDowell Sheriff’s Office began a search and uncovered allegations of inappropriate contact with an 11-year-old.

Three days later, Conner was located and taken into custody.

In an unrelated case, 28-year-old Copper Urion Eckenrod of Marion is charged with four counts of indecent liberties with a child, three counts of first degree sex offense and two counts of first degree statutory sex offense.

According to McDowell detectives, Eckenrod allegedly had sexual contact with a female acquaintance for years.

The girl is now 9; but the incidents began when she was 5.

Both Conner and Eckenrod’s next court appearances are scheduled for June 11^th in McDowell County Superior Court.

Lincoln County officials are looking for two people wanted in a rash of burglaries that happened at four businesses early Tuesday morning.

Three restaurants and a marketplace were discovered broken into; as officials say robbers used a large rock to break out the windows at each of the businesses.

The thieves reportedly took money during each break-in, and stole a safe from one of the restaurants.

Should you have information, call Lincoln Crimestoppers at 704-732-8909.

Catawba County Sheriff candidate Jason Reid states he had nothing to do with the search warrant being sealed.

The former Catawba sheriff’s captain held a press conference Monday afternoon to respond to the unsealing of the search warrant that occurred May 4^th.

Reid says the search warrant was executed by the state bureau of investigation on the sheriff’s office and narcotics unit on April 19^th.

Reid is under investigation for stalking, cyberstalking and willfully failing to discharge duties.

The investigation began after Reid’s ex-girlfriend accused him of placing a tracking device on her car and stalking her.

Reid describes the situation as a (quote) “political attack.”