Tennessee Sex Offender Crosses State Lines to Meet Underage Girl in Jonesboro Hotel Room, Gets Big Surprise

An over 2-hour drive has helped to end a near 2-month investigation of a register sex offender accused of crossing state lines to meet with an underage girl.

The big surprise for 57-year-old David Odom: there was no 15-year-old girl in the hotel room he allegedly rented. Instead, there were detectives with the Internet Crimes Against Children Division - with the help of the SWAT team - waiting to lock him up.

Jonesboro Police in Arkansas say the investigation began on September 20th of this year when Odom - a registered sex offender - allegedly used social media messaging to make contact with who he believed to be an underage girl. Investigators say "Odom made the conversation go sexual" and continued to text the teenager.

On Sunday, Odom drove from Trenton, Tennessee, to Jonesboro, Arkansas, for the meeting. That's a trip that takes at least 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Odom was arrested shortly after renting the hotel room and has been charged with Internet Stalking of a Child. His bond was set at $1,000,000.

These people give their version of what justice should look like for Odom.

Also, there was an interesting discussion about the role of children being online and having to deal with child predators.