Jacques is a "person of interest" in Bennett's disappearance, according to the Vermont State Police.
Flyers alerting the Dartmouth community to Bennett's disappearance were posted on the College's campus on Friday.
Jacques, a 42-year-old registered sex offender, was arrested for aggravated sexual assault against a Randolph minor who had been interviewed in connection with the investigation into Bennett's disappearance, Vermont State Police director James Baker said at a Monday press conference. The State Police has asked investigators from the Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations to look into the sexual assault case, which may include other victims, Baker said.
Jacques pled not guilty to the charges in Chelsea District Court on Monday and is now being held on $250,000 bail, the Associated Press reported. The involved minor said she had been assaulted over a five-year period, beginning when she was nine, according to an affidavit released by State Police detective William Jenkins, as reported by the Associated Press. She claimed to have received a phone call and a note telling her that she, along with two other girls, had been enrolled in a "program for sex" in which Jacques was the trainer, the affidavit said.
Police believe Bennett may have been seeking to meet an individual she had met online on Myspace.com before her disappearance.
Information recovered during a forensic computer analysis led police, who were acting in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to focus the search on Jacques' property on Monday, press releases from the Vermont State Police reported. K-9 units and a helicopter provided by Massachusetts and Connecticut State Police aided the search.
On June 26, an article of clothing reportedly matching Bennett's outfit was found on the side of Vermont highway RT-65 in Brookfield, Vt. Police have now preliminarily linked the clothing to Bennett using forensic testing, Baker said.
The original discovery of the clothing sparked separate, unsuccessful searches of the surroundings by K-9 units and of nearby Sunset Lake by the State Police Dive Team, Tara Thomas, public information officer for the Vermont State Police told The Dartmouth in an interview on Saturday.
Weather conditions prevented police from conducting planned aerial searches for Bennett on Sunday, according to press releases from the police.
Police have received "hundreds and hundreds" of tips about the case, Thomas told The Dartmouth.
When contacted by The Dartmouth on Monday, Thomas said police would not comment further on the case. Jim Bennett, Brooke's father, said he did not have any information about the case other than that released by police. Cassandra Gagnon, Bennett's mother, declined to comment.
The Amber Alert system, which serves to mobilize communities searching for missing children, was created in the wake of the 1996 abduction of Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old from Arlington, Texas, the U.S. Department of Justice web site states. The criteria for initiating an Amber Alert vary from state to state.
Since its inception, the program has resulted in the successful return of 397 children, according to the web site. In 2007, the program boasted a 24 percent success rate, providing for the location of 68 of 278 missing children who were involved in an Amber Alert, according to ABC News.
Bennett was reported to be wearing jeans, a pink sweater and white sneakers at the time of her disappearance, according to a police press release. Those with any information about Bennett's whereabouts are advised to contact Vermont State Police.
