FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — A 15-year-old boy faces a new charge following an investigation into a missing child case from December 2025. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office added the charge against Junior Bishop, who is being prosecuted as an adult.
Bishop was originally arrested in December 2025 alongside Darnell Hairston, a registered sexual offender. The two were discovered traveling in a vehicle with an 11-year-old boy who had been reported missing. Bishop is currently being held without bond.
Bishop was already facing several other felony charges prior to the addition of the kidnapping count. These include aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, grand theft of a motor vehicle, aggravated fleeing and eluding, reckless driving, driving without a license, and resisting an officer without violence.
The new charge follows a three-month investigation into the events surrounding the December 2025 arrest. While detectives initially determined in January that Hairston kidnapped and physically abused the boy, further investigation identified Bishop as a co-conspirator. Investigators used interviews with the victim and Bishop to build the case.
Digital and physical evidence also linked Bishop to the crime. Detectives conducted search warrants on Bishop’s cellphone and found communications between him, the victim, and Hairston leading up to the kidnapping. Authorities also obtained Bishop’s DNA and fingerprints during the course of the investigation.
Sheriff Rick Staly, of Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, said his office worked to confirm Bishop’s role after the teenager was not truthful during the first stages of the case. “As I stated originally, I thought Bishop was involved in the kidnapping, but we just had to prove it,” Staly said. “Our detectives worked hard to prove Bishop’s involvement after he had not been truthful during the initial investigation. In the end, our investigation showed he was fully involved in the acts to lure the victim into Hairston’s grasp, and they terrorized him together.”
On April 1, a warrant was issued for Bishop’s arrest on the additional kidnapping charge. Bishop was moved from the John E. Goode Pretrial Detention Facility in Jacksonville to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility to be served with the warrant. He was then transferred back to the Jacksonville facility, where he remains in custody.
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