Police Know Name of Molester

Police in southern New Jersey police have a big break in the search for a man who allegedly fondled a 10-year-old girl at a Marlton department store. They have identified the suspect.

Officials with the Evesham Police Dept. say it was the dozens of tips calls they've received that has helped them identify the man. The man they now believe is responsible for the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl at the Target store on Route 73. An all out manhunt is underway now and police are issuing this advice to the suspect:

Captain William Cromie/Evesham Twp. Police Dept.: "We suggest that he turn himself in because as of right now, every police agency in South Jersey is looking for him."

Not only do they have good surveillance video of the man they're looking for, they now know who he is. Police have identified him as 43-year-old Michael John Kember who also goes by the alias Tim Knauer. Police say he lives in a trailer home on Hogbin Road in the Monroe Twp. section of Williamstown, New Jersey. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Captain William Cromie/Evesham Twp. Police Dept.: "We believe he still is certainly in the South Jersey area, we made an attempt to arrest him today at his home in Monroe Twp., but that did not pan out."

Kember is wanted in connection with the July 5th sexual assault that occurred at a Target department store on Route 73 south in the Marlton section. A 10-year-old Toms River girl told Action News New Jersey Correspondent Nora Muchanic, she was shopping with her father when she was momentarily separated and the man walked up to her.

Victim: "I didn't even know he was coming. He inched his fingers up my pants and he rubbed the tips of his finger right under my bottom. And he took it out and told me to be quiet."

The victim's mom says she and her daughter are talking about this to warn others and possibly help catch the suspect.

Mother of Victim: "We want to get him apprehended. Because she wants to feel safe again. She wants to feel that what she did had a positive impact and she wants them to apprehend him."

Police say they have certainly been very helpful and encourage other parents and their children to be on the alert while the suspect remains at large.

Captain William Cromie/Evesham Twp. Police Dept.: "I would consider him dangerous, certainly."

Police are looking for, 43-year-old Michael John Kember of Monroe Twp., who stands 5'11", weighing 180 to 190 pounds with black grey hair and hazel eyes. He also goes by the alias of Tim Knauer. If you have any information on his whereabouts, you are being asked to call the Evesham Police at (856) 983-1111. You need not give your name, just the information.

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: 6 ABC-AP