BREMERTON, Wash. — A missing autistic woman has been found safe, and the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office has arrested the transient sex offender believed to have lured her over the internet.
The 21-year-old woman was last seen at her home on Stirrup Ct NW in Bremerton around 11 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17.
The sheriff’s office told KOMO News that the victim is a dependent adult woman on the autism spectrum with the mental capacity of a 10-year-old.
“This is a woman on the autism spectrum,” Kevin McCarty with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office said. “She has a very difficult time locating her own home; she doesn’t know her own address, she wouldn’t be able to tell you how to get to her home, and she doesn’t know how to use public transportation. She’s very impressionable.”
She was believed to be with 21-year-old Leroy Franklin Nickols, a registered sex offender. Records show Nickols has a 2022 conviction for second-degree rape, as well as two felony convictions for assault in 2024 and 2025.
Authorities suspected Nickols lured the victim away from her home after communicating with her online for about a month and had attempted to meet with her at least once before at a local mall.
“They last saw her about 11 o’clock on the 17th, and when they went into her room the next morning around 8:30, she wasn’t there,” McCarty said. “She’d taken several personal items, a backpack, a coat, a laptop, things like that. She packed up to leave.”
Nickols is reportedly transient in Thurston and Lewis counties, is known to take public transit, and his last known residence is a shelter in the Olympia area.
Family members also told law enforcement that Nickols was aware of the victim’s dependent status but had refused to disclose their whereabouts or ensure her safety.
Shortly after 1 p.m. on Jan. 19, the KCSO announced the victim had been found safe in the Olympia area.
Nickols has been arrested and is in custody. Authorities are currently investigating this incident as a kidnapping.