ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A 72-year-old man was arrested after being accused of inappropriately touching two children in the lazy river at an Orange County resort, an arrest affidavit shows.
Deputies said they responded to the Club Wyndham Bonnet Creek resort in Lake Buena Vista on Monday around 6:30 p.m. in reference to a man who was “possibly touching people” in the lazy river pool.
According to the affidavit, a mother at the resort told deputies that her 12-year-old daughter was swimming in the lazy river on Sunday. The child reported that she felt something touch her and when she looked down, she saw a man touch her lower back and right side.
Deputies said the girl said it was an elderly man who touched her and she tried to avoid him the rest of the time she was in the pool.
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The girl said that on Monday, she returned to the lazy river when she saw the same man, according to the affidavit. She reported that she would try to avoid the man by swimming to the opposite side of the pool, but the man would slow down and float towards her as she swam past.
Deputies said the girl exited the lazy river in tears and told an adult that the man grabbed her “buttocks and tickled it while under water.”
According to the affidavit, while the parents called law enforcement, one of them took several videos of the man – described as having white hair and a white beard – which appeared to show him approach young girls in the lazy river and swim underwater towards them.
Deputies said when they arrived, they found the man – identified as William Chatel – in the hot tub at the resort.
When investigators asked Chatel about the alleged incident in the lazy river, he said that “he didn’t remember anything,” according to the affidavit.
Deputies said when they notified other investigators in their sector as well as the sex crimes unit, they were made aware of a possible second victim.
A parent in that incident told deputies they wished to press charges and provided the swimsuit their child was wearing at the time, which was “collected for possible collection of evidence from it to include DNA evidence.”
According to the affidavit, swabs of the suit were collected and sent to forensics, and deputies received a warrant to collect a DNA sample from Chatel.
Chatel was placed under arrest and taken to the Orange County jail without incident, deputies said.
He faces charges of lewd and lascivious molestation by a victim 12 or under, according to the affidavit.
Chatel was arrested on similar charges in 2017 after being accused of inappropriately touching a child at a Goodwill store where he worked.