true crime

Chilling CCTV footage shows eight-year-old being lured away by a stranger.

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.

A CCTV footage released shows the moment an eight-year-old girl is lured from a Florida supermarket by a complete stranger.

Cherish Perrywinkle was later raped and murdered before her body was dumped in front of a church.

via Facebook/InMemoryofCherishPerrywinkle

The Perrywinkle family were shopping for clothes at Walmart back in 2013 when they were approached by a man who offered to assist.

That man was later identified by Cherish's mother as 56-year-old Donald Smith, a registered sex offender previously convicted of indecent assault on a child under 16, attempted kidnapping and distributing obscene material.

The recently released security footage from the Walmart store shows Smith lurking in the same aisle as the family before striking up a conversation and allegedly offering to buy them dinner at a nearby McDonald's restaurant. He then leads Cherish away, supposedly to get the girl help him to collect the food, but the pair never return.

Instead, the footage shows Cherish and the man climb into a white van and drive out of the carpark.

via Facebook/InMemoryofCherishPerrywinkle

The little girls's body was found dumped in front of a Florida church the following day.

Smith was arrested in 2013 and will face court next month.