Wisconsin abduction suspect Wayne Yarbrough speaks to Today's THV

"I never really considered myself having abducted her. She was with me and I just decided to move down here," Yarbrough stated.

"We assumed it was going to be a true kidnapping of a young girl...we thought the worst," said Ray Byrd, the Criminal Investigator for the Perry County Sheriff's Office.

According to investigators at the scene, it was not what they were led to expect with a "non-family" child abduction. State police and a SWAT team responded to the rural Perry County address prepared to break in and capture a suspected child kidnapper.

"Actually they never even came to the door...I finally came out," Yarbrough said.

"And I took him into custody, got him cuffed, advised him of his rights and simply asked him 'What's your relationship to this young girl?' His reply was, 'I'm her father,'" said Byrd. 

Yarbrough, originally from Pine Bluff, met the girl's mother in Texarkana four-and-a-half years ago.

"We moved up to Chicago, which is where she was from originally. Then we decided to move on over to Amberg in Wisconsin," Yarbrough said.

Then the mother died on December 10th of last year, and Yarbrough's been rearing the girl ever since.

However, her aunt from Chicago has legal custody and traveled to Arkansas on Monday to pick her up.

But according to investigators, custody or not, the girl has a definite opinion on Yarbrough.

"She was quite adamant, 'That's my dad and I accept no other than him as my dad,'" stated Investigator Byrd. "She considered him her father. Her real father, it turns out, he's deceased also."

According to officials with the Perry County Sheriff's Office, Yarbrough faces no criminal charges in the state of Arkansas.

"[The girl] wanted to stay, but she didn't. I mean I told her I was in trouble so the best thing to do was to go to her aunt's and be happy with it...yeah I hope to see her again," Yarbrough added.