Howard County Got the Child-Abuse Tip in April. The Warrant Came in September. Now a Kokomo Man, 22, Faces a Level 1 Child Molesting Charge.

Jarren Schmitt, 22, of Kokomo, in a booking photo released by the Howard County Sheriff's Office. Photo: Howard County Sheriff's Office (via WIBC)

The first count against Jarren Schmitt is as serious as Indiana's felony code gets short of murder.

Schmitt, 22, of Kokomo, is charged with child molesting as a Level 1 felony, along with child exploitation and possession of child sexual abuse material, both Level 3 felonies, according to the Howard County Sheriff's Office, as reported by WRTV and WIBC on Friday. A Level 1 conviction carries 20 to 40 years in prison under Indiana Code 35-50-2-4, and up to 50 years for certain child molesting offenses.

Those are accusations, not findings. Schmitt has not been convicted of anything, he is presumed innocent, and the state will have to prove every count in a Howard County courtroom.

Four dates on the public record

What the sheriff's office has released reads less like a breaking arrest than a case file that took the long way around.

In April 2026, Detective Kysha Quirk of the sheriff's office and the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force opened the case after a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Google generated the report, flagging images that were confirmed as child sexual abuse material, according to WISH-TV.

Investigators identified Schmitt as the user tied to the account. On Sept. 3, they served a search warrant at a home in the 300 block of Walker Avenue on Kokomo's northwest side and seized several electronic devices that, police said, were later found to contain abuse material. Kokomo police and Indiana State Police assisted.

On Sept. 15, the Kokomo Tribune reported that Schmitt had been arrested on preliminary charges, listing three possession counts at the time. On Oct. 9, more than a month after the warrant, Indianapolis outlets published the sheriff's office's account of the case along with Schmitt's booking photo.

None of the published accounts explain the basis for the Level 1 molesting count beyond the investigation itself, and the Hoosier Enquirer is not going to fill that gap with guesses. Court filings will set out what prosecutors allege.

The months in between

Here is the part Hoosiers paying for this system have a right to ask about. A flagged-image report from a national clearinghouse landed with a county detective in April. The door on Walker Avenue was not knocked on until September.

There may be good reasons. Tracing an account to a real person takes subpoenas, provider records and confirmation work. But the sheriff's office has not said why this one took four to five months to reach a search warrant, and the public release that finally laid it out did not address the question either.

When the first count on the sheet is child molesting, the calendar is not a paperwork detail. Every week between a tip and a warrant is a week a suspect is not in custody. That is a fair thing for county commissioners, the prosecutor and the sheriff to explain in plain English, and it would be fair even if the delay turns out to be entirely justified.

Credit where it is due: the Google report did its job, the task force followed it, and a 22-year-old is now answering felony charges in court. Law-and-order means backing that work, and it also means asking whether it moves as fast as the stakes demand.

If you know something

The Indiana ICAC Task Force asks anyone aware of online exploitation, solicitation or enticement of children to report it to the NCMEC CyberTipline. More on the task force's work is at internetcrimesagainstkids.com. No child connected to this case has been identified by authorities, and this newspaper will not try to identify one.

Schmitt's case now moves through Howard County's courts. The Hoosier Enquirer will report the next hearing, any plea offer and, if it comes to that, the verdict. We will also report the answer, if the sheriff's office gives one, to why April became September.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.