A former Van Buren County sheriff's deputy is behind bars in White County, Tennessee, charged with statutory rape and harboring after a missing 15-year-old girl from Decatur, Alabama was found safe inside a home nearly 140 miles from where she disappeared. Brian Schalk was arrested in connection with the teenager's disappearance, and authorities say he could still face additional charges as the investigation continues.
The girl ran away from Decatur last week, and Decatur police opened a missing persons investigation, according to Atlanta News First. The case quickly became a multi-state effort, with the FBI eventually giving White County deputies a specific location where authorities believed the teenager was staying. Deputies returned to that location the next morning with a search warrant.
“We got enough valid information. We got a search warrant and we went to the house and the young lady came out. And she was safe,” White County Sheriff Steve Page said, describing the moment deputies confirmed the teen was unharmed. The girl's family was traveling to Tennessee to reunite with her following the recovery, per the same account.
How License Plate Cameras Cracked the Case
Investigators say Schalk's vehicle was detected by a Flock license-plate reader camera around the time the teenager disappeared, and those camera hits ultimately helped track his vehicle to the White County area. Page said the technology played a major role in locating the suspect. White County installed a network of a dozen Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras in December 2025, a joint effort between the sheriff's office and Sparta Police, according to Sparta Live.
Those camera networks are built to check plates against national law enforcement databases, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, allowing agencies across state lines to coordinate in real time during runaway and Amber Alert cases, per WIVK-FM. That interconnected system is what let a Decatur runaway report translate into an FBI location tip inside Middle Tennessee, closing the gap between two states in a matter of days.
A Former Deputy in a Neighboring County
Schalk is a former deputy with the Van Buren County Sheriff's Department, the article notes. Van Buren County directly borders White County along the Caney Fork River on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau, according to Wikipedia, placing Schalk's former law enforcement post just next door to the jurisdiction where he was ultimately arrested. He graduated as a sworn deputy with Van Buren County in June 2023, under Sheriff Michael Brock, per the department's own records.
Court dockets in White County also show Schalk faced an earlier, unrelated criminal charge in September 2024 for an alleged violation of an order of protection, in which he posted a $10,000 surety bond, according to the Secrets True Crime Podcast. That case reportedly remained pending on the county docket for several months following his arrest.
Charges and What Could Come Next
Schalk was charged with statutory rape and harboring following the teenager's recovery, and he is currently being held in the White County jail. Under Tennessee law, statutory rape is a Class E felony carrying a sentencing range of one to six years in prison, fines up to $3,000, and possible sex offender registry placement upon conviction. Harboring or hiding a runaway child is a Class A misdemeanor under state law, punishable by up to eleven months and twenty-nine days in jail and fines up to $2,500 if an adult fails to notify law enforcement or guardians within 24 hours of learning a minor's whereabouts.
Sheriff Page warned that authorities would continue working until they found what they needed, and Schalk could still face additional charges as the investigation moves forward. It remains an open question whether federal charges will be added given the teenager's movement across state lines, and how his pending 2024 misdemeanor case will proceed alongside the new allegations.
The teenager's mother is now urging other parents to pay closer attention to their daughters' social media activity, saying trafficking and grooming are real dangers for teenagers. Tennessee's child protection framework generally emphasizes routing runaway minors toward protective custody and family reunification rather than delinquency proceedings, according to policy guidance from Shared Hope International, a distinction that shaped how quickly the teenager was returned to her family once she was found safe.
