St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne
41-year-old Melvin Emde of Oklahoma is in custody accused of faking his own drowning in Louisiana to avoid child rape charges in North Carolina. St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said on August 7th they received a call from Emde’s son that his father went under while kayaking on the Mississippi River near Hahnville. Champagne said they were immediately suspicious because he missed court in North Carolina…
“We couldn’t come out with it before because we didn’t want to alert him to the fact that we were aware that it was probably a hoax,” said Champagne.
On Sunday Georgia State Police attempted to pull over a motorcycle for not having a plate. The driver fled, crashed, and gave them a fake name. Campagne said fingerprints revealed Emde’s identity and arrest record. As for charges he could face in Louisiana…
“Basically, filing false reports which we refer to as injuring public record in Louisiana, which is a felony. Obviously, he’s got more serious things to deal with, with these sex charges in North Carolina,” said Champagne.
Champagne said they are now able to tell the whole story and how law enforcement from multiple states and agencies worked together to capture Emde.
“So, we just kind of left it as a missing person’s report, another person who just drowned in the river and his body didn’t appear. It sounds like a pretty good concoction that they came up with, but like most of those, they don’t work,” said Champagne.
Emde was wearing an ankle monitor as a condition of his bail in North Carolina.
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