Melvin Emde: Oklahoma man wanted on child rape charge arrested after ‘faking own death in kayaking accident’

SKY NEWS

A man who is facing a child rape charge has been arrested after faking his own death in a kayaking accident, Louisiana police have said.

Melvin Emde, 41, was detained after crashing his motorbike while being pursued by police in Georgia for not having a number plate on Sunday.

The suspect, from Talihina in Oklahoma, had been reported missing by his son early on 7 August, authorities said.

Emde had been kayaking on the Mississippi River in Louisiana when he was last seen.

Authorities were told at the time that Emde had drowned.

Police carried out a search spanning two days and used divers, sonar, a small boat and a drone but no body was found, the St Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana said.

Meanwhile, investigators learned that Emde was due in court on charges of “indecent liberties with a child and statutory rape of a child” in North Carolina.

Louisiana Sheriff Greg Champagne said: “We immediately became quite suspicious that this may have been a faked…