For the past week or more, residents of Jasper County had noticed advertisements posted at various places throughout the county offering babysitting services for $12 per weekend — but the ads solicited the babysitting services for “Females only” and requested their ages be “11 months thru 9 years.”
The ads also caught the attention of investigators with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department, who discovered the man posting the bulletins across the county was Thomas Louis Van-Hook, a convicted sex offender, who has victimized, at least, three female children in the past. But because Van-Hoot was off parole, had completed his sentencing requirements and had no stipulations to stay away from children, law enforcement officials were having a difficult time trying to find a way to charge him with a crime.
“We know where he is and we are waiting on a judge to sign the warrant,” Bob Walker, a Jasper County Sheriff’s Department investigator told The Examiner on Friday.
The Examiner was told by a law enforcement source on Friday that a 2-year-old child may be Van-Hook’s latest victim.
“From what I was told they began investigating this after a little girl was left with him,” said The Examiner’s source. “Because she is so young she can’t make an outcry and unless he injured her the exam isn’t going to reveal anything.
“He is out there actively trolling for fresh victims. And because he has served his time, I am not sure what we can do about it until he victimizes another child. This guy is a sick bastard.”
Sheriff’s investigators said they were not aware of anyone that had responded to the ads or of any children being assaulted by Van-Hook. They are asking for anyone who left their children with Van-Hook to contact them.
The Examiner also obtained a copy of a letter that Van-Hook wrote in 2004 to the Procter & Gamble Company, the makers of Pampers Diapers, where he requested that the company do more to show the genital areas of children. The head of corporate security for Procter & Gamble sent the letter to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department.
Van-Hook provided a dozen scenarios on how he thought Pampers should film their commercials in the 7-page letter. One scenario was that Pampers’ commercials should show a little girl laying on a couch for a diaper change and the cameras could show her, “with her little legs wide open.”
Van-Hook also suggested using pampers baby wipes on girls as old as nine. In his closing paragraph, he write, “there should not be a problem of your showing a nine-year-old girl’s beautiful, pretty little hairless …”
According to records from the Texas Department of Public Safety Sex Offenders Database, Van-Hoot was convicted three times for indecency with a child by exposing himself to girls ages 4-year-old, 6-year-old and 3-year-old.
Van-Hoot was taken into custody at his residence in Jasper on Friday and is being held on a $300,000 bond.