A 21-year-old U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Liberty is facing a first-degree felony rape charge after Montville Township police say they used a cellphone signal to track down a missing 12-year-old girl and found her inside a hotel room he had rented. Jayden Fox, of Palatka, Florida, had traveled to Ohio while on a four-day military leave, according to police.
Police were searching for a runaway girl from Willowick, in Lake County, when investigators tracked her cellphone signal to a hotel in Montville Township, roughly 50 miles away in Medina County, according to Cleveland.com. Montville Township police were called to the hotel on Aug. 14, where they found the girl in a room rented by Fox, per investigators. Fox is accused of meeting the girl online before traveling from Fort Bragg, North Carolina — since renamed Fort Liberty — to Willowick and picking her up, according to police.
A Medina County grand jury indicted Fox on Aug. 18 on one count of first-degree rape, with a trial now scheduled to begin Oct. 26, according to WKYC. Fox is being held in the Medina County jail with bond set at $2 million, per police. A judge also issued a temporary protection order for the girl, while Medina County prosecutors filed court documents requesting Fox be barred from contacting anyone under 18.
A Cross-Country Trip on Military Leave
Fort Liberty sits in Fayetteville, North Carolina, more than 500 miles south of Willowick — a distance Fox is accused of covering during a brief window of leave from active duty, the station's report notes. The Medina County Prosecutor's Office is assisting with the investigation, and the girl was reunited with her family, according to police. Other unspecified agencies are also assisting.
Because the alleged offense occurred off-base against a civilian minor, local courts and civilian law enforcement — not military authorities — retain primary jurisdiction over the case, even though the Army holds its own concurrent disciplinary authority under military law. Initial court filings in Medina Municipal Court show the criminal complaint was sworn based on a preliminary police report, while Montville police have said the full investigative file remains ongoing and unfinalized.
Statutory Exposure and What Comes Next
Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2907.02, rape involving a victim under 13 is a first-degree felony carrying mandatory prison terms of up to life and mandatory Tier III lifetime sex offender registration if convicted, according to the Cross Law Office. Cleveland.com reports that additional charges are anticipated as the investigation progresses, and that investigators continue to pursue all available leads and evidence, per a news release describing the case as lengthy and ongoing.
The case echoes another from December 2025, when Spc. Samuel Noel Talavera, an active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Liberty, was arrested after allegedly connecting online with an 11-year-old girl who went missing from Tucson, Arizona, according to Index Media. Statewide, Ohio recorded 7,656 juvenile runaway cases in 2025, with 97.8% of missing children safely recovered, according to the 2025 Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report released by Attorney General Dave Yost, as detailed by the Scioto Post. It remains unclear whether federal authorities or additional prosecutors will pursue supplemental charges as digital forensic review continues ahead of Fox's October trial.
