Man Charged for Killing 10-Year-Old Iowa Girl Who Went Missing In July 2020 & Was Found Dead

A man has been charged with the murder of an adolescent girl whose absence prompted an extensive investigation in 2020. He was convicted weeks after her body was recovered.

A man reported to be a registered sex offender who has spent most of his adulthood in and out of prisons has been charged for taking the life of an Iowa girl. Her name is Breasia Terell; she was 10-years-old, and she went missing in July 2020.

Since then, the sex offender known as Dinkins has been a person of interest to the police— in fact, he was the only individual officers tagged with the title after a thorough investigation.

Breasia had reportedly been staying the night along with her stepbrother and his dad, Dinkins, at an apartment located in Davenport when she disappeared. Dinkins was not immediately associated with the girl's disappearance. He was arrested for an unrelated reason hours after it.

Apparently, he had violated his sex offender registry terms by refusing to update his address and having contact with minors. Those violations were what initially had him jailed hours after Breasia went missing.

The following morning, authorities issued an AMBER Alert for Breasia, and it listed Dinkins as her alleged abductor. It took the police several months of teamwork with different agencies and intensive investigations to find the remains of her body.

It was discovered by Fishermen in DeWitt last month. Now weeks later, Dinkins has been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping.

He is looking at life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Scott County Attorney Mike Walton exposed some details at a short press conference on Wednesday. According to the criminal complaint he read, Dinkins took Breasia from the apartment without her permission after which he shot her with a firearm causing her death.

The motive behind the crime has not been revealed because the case is still ongoing and investigative information must remain protected.

Walton, the county attorney, praised Breasia's mother, Aishia Lankford, for her cooperation. The woman and Dinkins had reportedly been together nearly ten years ago. In an interview, Lankford once implied that she left him after she found out about him.

She has also referred to him as "weird." Meanwhile, the man in question has pleaded not guilty to the registry violations, and neither has he entered a plea on the charges pertaining to Breasia's case.

For now, he is being held in the Clinton County Jail. If convicted of the crimes he has been charged with, he is looking at life in prison with no possibility of parole.