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‘Adventures With Purpose’ Founder Jared Leisek Booked For Allegedly Raping Child
Jared Leisek — who co-founded a diving group credited for finding dozens of missing people — was booked into a Utah jail following charges that he raped a relative in 1992.
One of the founding members of a group credited for solving dozens of high-profile missing persons cases has been jailed.
Jared Leisek, 47, was booked into the Sanpete County jail in Utah on a single child rape charge on Jan. 5, according to jail records reviewed by Oxygen.com. Court documents filed Tuesday with the county’s Sixth Judicial District Court show Leisek is now being charged with one alleged incident dating back to 1992 as opposed to two, as previously outlined when he was initially charged in November.
Leisek was not arrested after charges were filed “given the fact that he lives out of the state of Utah and the crimes occurred 30 years ago,” Sanpete Deputy County Attorney Arek E. Butler previously told Oxygen.com.
According to the amended filing, “On or between Jan. 1, 1992, and Dec. 31, 1992, at and within Sanpete County, State of Utah, the defendant did have sexual intercourse with a child who is under the age of 14.”
RELATED: YouTuber Behind Finding Bodies In High-Profile Missing Person Cases Charged With Child Rape
A statement of probable cause alleges Leisek — who would have been 16 or 17 years old at the time of the alleged incident — of raping a 10-year-old female relative in the bedroom of her Ephraim, Utah home — about 75 miles south of Provo.
Affiant Detective Corey Devon Krebs of the Ephraim City Police Department stated Leisek allegedly “pinned the victim to the ground” before forcing sexual intercourse.
Leisek was previously charged with raping the same minor girl in a separate incident that allegedly occurred between Oct. 1, 1992 and Nov. 1, 1992 at the child’s grandparents’ Utah home, though records reflect he is no longer facing charges for the latter.
"Both I and the officer misread the victim's witness statement (which is not as clear as it could have been)," County Attorney Butler told Oxygen.com. "The second rape occurred in her grandparents' house in Las Vegas, not Manti, Utah. I cannot file charges that do not occur in Sanpete County, Utah. So I had to drop that charge."
The state of Utah does not have a statute of limitations for rape.
Case notes published with the court on Thursday cite sealed records referring to motions to dismiss charges at a Dec. 12 hearing, where Leisek’s attorney represented his client remotely before Judge Mandy Larsen.
Leisek’s attorney, Randall Richards, did not respond to requests for comment by Oxygen.com.
Jared Leisek is one of the founding members of the Bend, Oregon-based group “Adventures with Purpose,” a search and recovery dive team whose mission is to execute and film underwater searches for missing people. The group, which formed in 2020, has largely been credited in multiple high-profile cases, including that of 16-year-old Kiely Rodni.
The allegations against Leisek have shifted the group — which has nearly 3 million followers on their YouTube channel — into a negative light, lead diver Doug Bishop previously told People.
“These allegations are serious,” Bishop stated. “What allegedly happened 30 years ago should not take away from the amazing work the team has done in this world over the past two years. The [courts] will write the ending of this story. The parties involved will have their voices heard.”
“Adventures with Purpose” lost tens of thousands of followers in the weeks following the accusations, according to Rolling Stone.
Bail information was not listed in jail records.
A courtroom conference about the case has been scheduled for Jan. 20.
