Rayford Evans, 52, of Doniphan, Ripley County, Missouri, United States has sexually exploited children for decades, according to assistant U.S. attorney Julie Hunter. He used bribery in the form of candy, electronics and toys to violate the trust of innocent children to sexually abuse them, she added.
Rayford Evans
As a predator, Evans hunted children for his depraved sexual appetite for at least 26 years, one of his alleged victims wrote in a letter. He has disputed the allegations involving some of his accusers.
Aside from Doniphan, Evans has lived in other parts of Missouri including Poplar Bluff and Williamsville. On November 17, 2022, he used his cellphone to record a girl, then 15, while she was bathing and using the bathroom.
The girl saw the phone and told a friend and the friend’s father before telling her own father, who contacted the Doniphan Police Department. An officer with the department found three videos of the girl that Evans tried to delete.
Hunter prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Justice in May 2006.
After a one-day bench trial on January 21, 2025, U.S. District Audrey G. Fleissig found Evans guilty of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor. During the trial, another victim testified that she was sexually abused by the Doniphan man.
On April 22, 2025, Fleissig sentenced Evans to to 21 years in prison. At the sentencing trial that day, three other accusers testified about the suspect’s sexual abuse of them.
Doniphan is the country seat of Ripley County. The city was named for Alexander William Doniphan, an attorney, a politician and a soldier born in Mason County, Kentucky, USA.
On July 9, 1887, Doniphan turned 79. On August 8, 1887, he died in Richmond, Ray County, Missouri, which is around 335 miles away from the city named for him.
CONAN Daily 