Family members of a Nocona man who’s been missing for almost a year say they’re ready for justice to be served.
Montague County authorities say while Nocona police chief Kent Holcomb was investigating the disappearance of 18-year-old Caleb Diehl, Holcomb passed on additional alleged offenses involving a 13-year-old.
54- year- old Ricky Dale Howard is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
He was arrested a few weeks ago in Muenster and is accused of sexually assaulting the 13-year-old boy more than 500 times over a four year period.
The week Diehl went missing last March, he borrowed a truck from Howard and the truck reappeared at Howard’s a few days later, but Diehl did not.
This is something that has been hard for Diehl’s family members because they say Howard was a good family friend.
“It’s been extremely hard. I mean when we went to the hearing, me, two of my daughters and my stepmother, went to the hearing where they were having a hearing to reduce his bail. They made his son testify and that just kills my kids because my kids still care a lot about his kids and they still talk and it was just so hard to see his son have to get up there,” Tami Diehl, Caleb’s mom, said.
Howard is now out on bond.
